The Blade and The Cross
by lee-lo the assassin
Summary: Arianna is sick to death of her co-assassin Connor, and tries to run away from her built up anger which leads to disastrous consequences and an unlikely romance. (If you don't like OC's don't read... simple as.) HaythamxOC
1. The Angry and The Clueless

Strongly inspired by Fire and Ice by GF44 here on

The war between the assassins and the templars is not understood by many. Only to those who are involved in it in one form or another. A lot of naive people, often novices, would say that the templars and assassins have similar motives but a different goal. Those people are wrong. The two orders could not be any more different if they tried to be.

The templars are a group of people who believe that mankind can only move forward when influenced under a single government to lead them in the right direction. Order purpose and direction are their three main goals. They believe that freedom to think individually will surely lead to chaos and destruction all together. I personally think that this is a sweetened way of them saying they want to control everyone and everything.

The assassins are a group of people who are dedicated to protecting the freedom and individual thinking of mankind, in belief that this is where the best ideas come and adapt from; when minds are free from control and can think freely. To the assassins control can only lead to a population of vegetables waiting orders as to what to do next; never thinking for themselves and never questioning anything. Life would be meaningless without these things. Their three main goals are freedom individuality and liberty. I personally think that the assassins suffer so that others don't have to, and all the assassins live life to the full even though there occupation brings never ending misery because the templars are so blind to their actions consequences.

My name is Saoirsena (see-er-sha-na) I am 27 years old and I am a British assassin. However I was introduced to the assassin order at a very young age. I was only 6 years old when my parents began training me. They died when I was 9 years old. The templars had them killed while I was in school. I then travelled to America to seek revenge on the people that were responsible for my parent's death but I met another assassin by the age of 13. His name was Achilles, he found me when I was dying from hyperthermia in his homestead. He took me in and after I regained the strength I told him the whole story and he agreed that he will continue to train me until I am ready to face the templar bastards that did this to my parents.

I now go by the name of Arianna simply because I am sick of people saying "what?" whenever I tell them what my name is. Achilles also so that Arianna is what he would have named a daughter if he had one and from then on it fitted.

I was sitting on the roof of the big house that I lived in with Achilles, doodling in the notepad that I left England with. It was the only thing I had so it was most dear to me. I was a bit of a doodler.

I liked to draw whatever I could see: the trees, the sun, the snow. Everything!

"Arianna!" I could hear Achilles from below. His voice dragged me from my daydreaming state.

"What?" I shouted in attempt to reply without even moving from the position that I was in.

"Get down here!" he shouted back, he sounds annoyed. That's never good news.

I get up from my position very annoyed in being disrupted again for the third time today. I climb to the highest point of the house and dive into the hay bale that is at the back of the house and nearly miss. My reaction to this near failure is yelping very loudly on my way down which led to the amusement of Achilles and Connor who were walking a short distance in front of the bale.

I jumped out trying to ignore the fact that I just made the mistake of a novice. I saw Connor's smirk and I just wanted to slap him.

Connor moved in 7 years ago when he was 16. I wasn't around to debate with Achilles about it. I found a lead to the death of my parents in Boston so I stayed there for a few days. When I came back he was here.

We never got along, in fact the only time we really talked was to argue, usually about his naiveté about everything that the assassins do or just his annoying bluntness in general. He makes me so angry just with the looks he has on his face. Achilles has scolded us several times for acting like children but I can't help it. He's just one of those people I generally dislike for every little thing that he does. On the small occasions that we do get on it's usually just a playful banter that we lead on about the small things that we do, of course they always lead to arguments but I guess it's progress after 7 years of dirty looks and snipes at each other.

"Go to hell, Connor," I said with an obvious annoyed tone.

"I didn't say anything," he looked up his nose at me with a threatening tone.

"You didn't have to!" I shouted, approaching the pair.

"Enough!" interrupted Achilles.  
"I am sick of you two fighting, after 7 years it's getting to be a tad dull, so I've decided to put a stop to it," he continued on.

"And how do you plan to do that old man?" Connor said. The hatred in my face was growing. I hate it when he calls him old man, it makes me want to shout the countless amounts of things he has done for him and doesn't get a thank you in return just an unpleasant nickname.

"You two are going to train together," Achilles stated calmly.

"What?" me and Connor shouted in unison.

"It will help you form a bond that should have been formed a long time ago," he continued.

"Not in this lifetime!" I shouted.

"Oh, you would be lucky to train with someone like me," Connor turned his anger to me.

"We can start right now. I can toss you into the nearest ditch and make you beg me to pull you out," I smirked and his lips curled with disgust.  
"Give you a lesson in swallowing your pride!" I shouted in his face.

"You two need to learn to get on, and soon. We are assassins, we are an order, and it's not much of an order when the two people that this order is depending on are fighting all the time," Achilles said walking back to the house.

"Fine, I'll give it a shot," I said much to Connor's surprise.  
"But I'm not making any promises," I said walking in the opposite direction.

_How am I supposed to get anything done when I am training beside an idiot like him? When I was his age I knew everything about our order and I didn't hesitate when it came to judging the templars. He is so stupid and naive and agghhhh! I don't think I can even get through one session with him without ripping my hair out! How can Achilles do this? He knows I'm dedicated and I trust his judgement but this is just going to make things go from bad to worse. _I thought while storming through the woods in attempt to run away from my anger that I wanted to take out on Connor's face.

"Hey Arianna," I heard Myriam's voice. I turn to see her with a big grin on her face, peering out from a tree.

"Oh, hey Myriam," I didn't look her in the eye.

"What's wrong?" she asked walking to me then instantly her face perked up as if her subconscious had answered the question for me.  
"Connor?" she asked with a smirk on her face, which wasn't helping the foul mood that he had put me in.

I nodded.

"When are you two going to learn to get on?" she asked with her hands on her hips.

"You sound like Achilles," I said, rolling my eyes at her.

"Well..." she came closer to me.

"I'm sorry to say it but I think he is right, you two have been fighting for a while now," she said with an awkward face.

"I know, but I can't help it! His attitude, his face, his snipes, his naiveté, Need I go on?" I asked seriously, she just laughed at me.

"My god, you two make me laugh. You fight like a brother and sister," she smiled at me. I couldn't come up with a reply that didn't sound insulting so I fell silent.  
"So what has the big bad wolf done this time?" she smiled. The corner of my lip twitched into a half smile, she actually managed to amuse me in my horrid mood.

"Achilles is making us train together, which isn't really a bad thing... I mean maybe I will get to punch the hell out of his stuck up little face," I was then taken out of my bad mood completely.  
"Oh my god! This isn't a bad idea at all!" I gave a devilish grin along with those half serious words.

"Arianna!" she shouted and then laughed and I joined her.

"It's just his attitude toward it I guess. He instantly started winding me up the moment he found out about it,"

"And you let him?" she replied, with a raised eyebrow.

"What?" I narrowed my eyes.

"Well, if you think about it. He can't really get to you the way he does unless you let him. Just think nothing of his snipes and you won't be winding yourself up," she said gesturing away, as she usually does.

When Myriam came to the house injured from a gunshot wound we quickly became friends and began talking like we had known each other for years. She's the only one I really talk to around here the others are dull and some of them have accents that get on my last nerves. They mean well but they just give me a headache, full stop.

I walked further into the woods.

"Where are you going?" she shouted to me.

"To think!" I shouted back.

I walked deeper into the woods, I felt for sure that I was beyond the homestead by now which Achilles told me to never do without consulting him first, but I never really planned to drift from the homestead, in fact I hadn't a clue as to where I was so I guess I didn't really break the rules. I heard the birds chirping above me and I finally began to relax from the tension, I stopped walking to look up to the sky. An old trick that my dad taught me: you can tell the time of day just by looking at the colour of the sky. I guessed that it was about 7pm. it was dark, but light enough that I could see where I was going.

I could hear crunching footsteps getting nearer to me. I knew that there wasn't a chance that this was an animal, the steps were too careless. I ran in the opposite direction and I heard the footsteps become louder and faster and that's when I started to panic I felt like screaming but no sound came out of my mouth, I was struck with shock and fear as to what had given chase to me in the middle of no-where.

"Assassin!" I heard a male voice scream from behind me. _Fuck! _ I thought. I had hoped that the chase was just paranoia but the truth was then clear. Someone wanted me, and whatever it was for, it wasn't good. I picked up the pace but I couldn't shake the noises following me.

I saw a shadowy figure came out from the trees that I was approaching. It grabbed my arm and attempted to put its hand over my mouth. I screamed in a high pitch and ear piercing manner.

"Shut up you bitch!" I heard one of the men behind me. I can't remember how many there was but there was at least two of them.

"Get off!" I shouted while trying to wiggle myself free.

"Shut it!" the man holding me said before putting a cloth over my nose and mouth. I let out another scream in desperate attempt to make anyone else hear me. At that point my vision had begun to blur and no noise was coming from my throat anymore, no matter how hard I tried to make it come out. My limbs went limp and I could no longer stand. My vision was becoming desperately impaired. The last thing I saw before completely blacking out was a flag with the templar cross on it. What had I gotten myself into?

_Oh bollocks! _Were my last thoughts before passing out.


	2. Weakened Is Not Helpless

Wow, I never thought I would get followers and reviews... I thought this was going to be dud to be honest but now I definitely want to make a full story out of this. And as a little celebration, I thought I would post the next chapter earlier than I anticipated. Thanks guys.

Let me know how you think I did.

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I woke up feeling groggy and I was expecting to be in my bed at home, but instead I found my wrists tied and hanging above my head chained to the ceiling. My head was spinning, I felt like I'd just been attacked by a wild bull. I opened my eyes but all I could see was a blur. I stood up straight as my bound arms were taking all of my weight and a massive relief came over them, enough for me to close my eyes at the wonderful feeling of weightlessness, it was from this I gathered that I had been hanging there a while, probably overnight. My vision started to clear itself and I contemplated my surroundings, I was in a dark dusty room that looked like it would be a nice home for a rat colony, but that was an insult to rats everywhere, I mean this place was beyond filthy.

The fear had knocked the grogginess right out of me as soon as my inner voice had uttered _you've been kidnapped!_ It took me a while to remember what had happened in the frontier, the fear I felt then was still present in every inch of my body. I didn't know where I was, when it was or who the hell wanted what with me. For a moment I thought that it was one of Connor's sick ideas of a joke, but even Connor wouldn't go as far as drugging me. If he did then it's his funeral.

I looked up at the chains that were restricting my hands again looking for any possible way that I could break free but it was clear that I wasn't going anywhere, anytime soon.

I heard footsteps and muttering getting louder and my heart kicked into motion. I don't think I've ever had the weaker hand when it came to facing a templar, it wasn't a comfortable feeling, my heart didn't seem to like it either It felt like it was in my throat and I could hear it pounding in my ears and my stomach felt like it was going to fall out of my backside. I desperately started tugging on the chains trying my best to break free hoping that they made the mistake of tying me to an old post or something that was ready to break, even if it meant losing my wrists. No such luck.

3 men entered the room to find me shooting death glares at all of them. I instantly started wishing I hadn't left the house without my hidden blade. They probably would have taken it off me, but I could have put up a bit more of a fight with the men who kidnapped me if I was armed.

"Well gentlemen, it looks like our little damsel in distress is awake," the man with black hair and facial hair said to the other two with a smirk on his face, the kind of smirk that you get when you have won at a game that you have cheated on. My blood boiled, the fear was dormant to the competition that the anger was giving. I would have given anything to have given them all a great amount of pain that day. I think I was partially succeeding with the looks I was giving them.

"Now, now, young lady. There was no need for that look was there?" the man with the beaked hat, a long cape and gray hair that was tied with a red ribbon said to me. He looked pompous in his ways and the tone of his voice only gave me a great urge to swear every word humanly possible, he took a position of authority which made it clear that he was the leader of these dicks. _He dies first_ my inner self spoke, I agreed. I didn't know who he was or what he wanted but he had a face I just wanted to slap.

I leaned forward to meet his eye contact, rage still burning away in my eyes which he was almost intimidated by, much to my pleasure, if you're in the position I was, you would understand that even the slightest intimidation was a start.

"Bite me!" I shouted suddenly. It made him smirk but made the other two halfwits scoff in disgust.

He turned to address the man that had just spoken.

"Charles, deal with that mouth on her," he said calmly much to the happiness of Charles; he nodded and then came toward me with an evil grin. My solid facial structure and proud ways were not moved by this command that he had given, in fact my inner self was cringing at the thought of him being anywhere near me.

I looked at him through my eyelashes with a snarl. He quickly responded by back handing me across the face. The noise of it echoed across the room and seemingly lasted forever; the noise was harsher than the pain. I yelped lightly but showed no further sign of pain. _Keep your pimp hand strong_ my inner voice teased me. _Fuck you!_ I started a conversation with myself.

"So!" he shouted so that I looked up at him.  
"Ready to cooperate?" he asked in a formal stuck up British accent. I didn't know whether to be comforted or scared that we were of the same nationality.

"No, but luckily I can still move my legs!" I shouted before giving a swift kick to his groin. He doubled over in pain while yelping louder than I did. I responded by smirking and letting out a small giggle of content at the other two men. The one who had not yet spoken was sneering at me and leader was shaking his head lightly but his facial expression remained unchanged. The leader then tutted while Charles was struggling to regain his footing.

"Looks like we have a trouble-maker here gents," he said to the other two. The man who had not yet spoken addressed him

"She's an assassin, ain't all assassins like this?" his words sounded strong with an Irish accent and poor grammar, the words bounced in my head. _Well Connor is,_ my inner self muttered and I scolded it for doing so.

The leader made his way toward me, he grabbed my chin in a forceful manner to make me return eye contact, he looked calm but I could see rage being locked away into his eyes. _I wonder how far I can push him_ I thought, and I loved that idea.

"Look little missy, you're lucky I didn't tell my men to kill you on sight but in return I would like some information, instead of this abuse and bluntness," he breathed in my face, I spat at him so he jumped back. Before he could react I responded. My mouth came into action before my mind could hold it back and all of the thoughts came bounding out at once.

"You're turning the tables to make it seem that you are doing me a favour, you've kidnapped me, taken me to god knows where and chained me to the ceiling of a dusty old shack. Forgive me if I'm wrong but any normal person would be pissed off at you!" I shouted. Charles laughed and the leader chuckled.

"you don't get it do you? If you won't talk, I'll kill you right here, right now," he sounded serious and I could tell that he was losing patience with my snipes. _Thank you Connor._ For once his verbal abuse was coming in handy, probably the only thing that he has given me a hand with in the 7 years I've known him _about god damn time_ my inner voice spoke. The leader was waiting for a response or a reaction from his threat, but I am no naive assassin and could tell he was bluffing either that or I was far too eager to push his buttons.

"Do it," I looked dead into his eyes waiting for a reaction. The other two were staring in wonder at their leader more anxious to see his reaction than I was, I could tell from this that he was unpredictable; it didn't change my thoughts toward him though. There was no chance I was going to snap under the pressure and I think I made them all perfectly aware of that.

"Okay, I'm lying," he admitted with the calm expression he often maintains no matter how heated the conversation may be.

"I know you're lying!" I shouted almost immediately in response. Another sentence to come shooting out of my mouth before my brain could come up with an alternative.  
"If you wanted me for a small amount of information you would have threatened me in the frontier with a knife against my throat. You wouldn't have gone to the effort of drugging me and chaining me, if that were the case then the templars are bigger idiots than I anticipated. What do you take me for? A novice? You're sadly mistaken. I'm not a 'young lady' or a 'little missy' and I am not stupid either," I shouted not lowering the volume of my voice, they maintained a composed appearance. They are cool headed I will give them that, but there is more to the story than the eye can see so I guessed that their blood was boiling just as much as mine was.

The leader took a deep breath and then sighed before gesturing the other men to leave the room; strangely they left with no questions asked. Something about that made me think that there was a backup plan that only involved him which made the fear come out in me a little more than the anger for a few moments. His eyes didn't leave mine while the men were leaving. A nice way to start an interrogation but I am not broken so easily.

"I do believe I have forgotten my manners," he said taking off his hat and tossing it on the floor next to his feet, I narrowed my eyes at his sudden change in tone in wonder to where he was going with this, my thoughts were that he was probably going to pull something charismatic out of his hat, the templars usually were charismatic in a way that they started convincing themselves that it was true so that they can sleep at night or look at themselves in the mirror easily, but it's very easy to contradict them if you use the right words.  
"Haytham Kenway at your service," he bowed slightly, I rolled my eyes in response to which he knitted his brows.

"untie me," I demanded in a calm way but anger still hidden away in the tone of my voice, the anger and the fear were battling for dominance in the pit of my stomach and I wasn't sure how to feel about it but it wasn't about to crush my spirit or my pride.

"I'm afraid that I can't do that miss," he returned to his pompous-posh position with his hands joined together behind his back, although his words were calm they infuriated me just as much as the other things he has said none the less.

"Will you stop calling me that?" I barked at him, annoyed with his formality, there was nothing formal about this so why couldn't he just knock it off?

"Well if you told me your name in turn it wouldn't have been necessary," he looked at me with his eyebrows raised, still taking that formality that was grinding my gears and driving me to the point of insanity at an increasingly fast pace.

"I'm afraid I can't do that sir," I mimicked his words to make this conversation less painful but he just smirked at me.

"Considering that you put up quite a fight in the frontier as my men have told me and you have spent all night in this... this filth. You still look quite... beautiful," he struggled to get the words out, in that random change of subject. I was trying to block him out but his words were riding up my spine in the most unpleasant of ways that just made me want to vomit.

My hair still had the long black curls intact, my training clothes were still in one piece which basically consisted of some shorts and a tank top, my skin still maintained its natural glow from the amount of time that I spend outside sat on the roof of the homestead house wasting an uncountable amount of time daydreaming and doodling. I have blue eyes and natural blush to my cheeks, I usually have dimples when I smile which Achilles and Myriam have both commented on but at that point I couldn't remember the last time I had smiled.

"Such bold words coming from a man who walks with such bearing and pride," I said half mocking him; I swallowed my pride enough to stop shouting at him for a few brief moments. I think he ignore that comment with the knowledge that I was mocking him.

"If I untie you will you tell me your name-"

"No," I responded nonchalantly.

"Why not?" he stood in front of me so that I had no choice but to look at his face, I could tell that he was getting some sort of pleasure out of this back and forth debate that we were having. He was changing the subject to wear me down _that bastard_.

"One. The only thing you are going to get if you untie me is seriously maimed, and two you need no use of my name so why bother wasting your breath?" I found it difficult to not raise my voice at him.

"I have a proposition for you," he kneeled; I guessed it was because I kept looking at the floor instead of him.

"And that would be?" I asked not even caring.

"If I release you, and you find your way out of this city and back to your home, I will spare your life,"

"Not that you'll have a lot of choice, I would have told everyone!" I began shouting again. He reminded me a lot of Connor. He had all the same characteristics, the face you wanted to slap, the attitude the pride. The only thing missing was the stupidity but even that was debatable.

"Let me finish. If you can't and I find you lingering the streets in the next 12 hours, I will detain you until I have the rest of the assassins at the end of my blade, you will play the bait," he said with an evil grin.

"Pffft, I have made my way out of Boston plenty of times!" I bragged, feeling like this challenge was too easy.

"Oh, we are not in Boston my dear," he smirked.  
"We are in New York" I saw the happiness glide across his face as he came to the realisation that I have never been to this city before. Something was odd.

"N-New York?" I murmured, he nodded slowly with that smirk still on his face. I was being offered a bet to which I had no chance of winning; I had never set foot in this city before how on earth was I meant to get out of it?

"You seem nervous," he said to me sarcastically. _I'll show him, that smug arrogant bitch_.

"And you seem confident," I shouted back. He underestimates the assassins, something that I don't take lightly or just brush off; I always have to prove myself no matter how much of a low life they may be.

"I am," his smirk grew bigger and so did my annoyance, I didn't think I could take much more of being trapped in the same room as him. For once in my life and I couldn't believe it but I wished in that second that Connor was there, he has the IQ of a peanut but he is good at escaping.  
"If I wasn't sure that I was going to win I wouldn't have offered," he said right in my face which sent me off the edge.

"Fine!" I shouted in his face.  
"Now let me go," I said and I started struggling to get out of the chains again.

"As you wish," he said, the look on his face was a victorious one, _oh shit! Is this the backup plan?_ I never gave a thought to that.

The chains released my hands and as they did, I quickly and on purposely punched Haytham across the face, making his stumble to the floor with a surprised gasp,I was just as surprised as he was, I wasn't sure if that came from him winding me up for the past god knows how long or from my realisation that he had made me except a bet that was a sure win in his case. I walked to the exit feeling as dumb as Connor by taking this bet, but my pride wouldn't him know that.

"you never said I couldn't hit you on my way out," were my final words to which it was my turn to give a smirk at him while he was looking at me with an annoyed facial structure with blood dripping from his mouth.

I made my way outside and as I did the guilt of this bet was flushing over my body, I began walking up the streets trying not to draw any attention to myself but the constant tripping, stumbling and bumping into people was starting to draw some attention. I was so lost in thought I didn't even give a thought to where I was _you've made that mistake one too many times already_ I frowned at this thought.

_What on earth were you thinking? You put the entire order on this line just so you can prove a point? A bet you are sure to lose, the look on Haytham's face obviously points out that it is rigged. There will be eyes all over you for the next 12 hours. The templars have eyes everywhere! _My inner self was scolding me for being such a novice with my actions.

_Oh my god! Achilles is going to have a cow! And a sheep and a pig and a goat, and this whole barn once he finds out what I've done! _I rub my forehead worried, I was determined to find my way out of this city, there is no chance I am giving up my whole life's work because of one pathetic man.

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So there you go, I thought the story needed a (cheesy and predictable) interrogation, the next chapter is where the story REALLY starts so hold on tight kids! Peace! :D


	3. The Kidnapper is the Saviour

Hey guys! Don't blame me! Blame my co-writer! I could have posted this chapter ages ago but she was insistent for me to post it on her birthday (Happy birthday Amy!) so it's her fault!

Total lie!

Actually, I was kinda procrastinating with this chapter slightly. Too much work from college and from work. The good news is I have the next week off to slack off from this story some more. ;)

Nah. The next chapter will be posted a lot earlier than I posted this one. Love you guys.

Enjoy.

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I wasn't sure how long I had been wondering around in hope that an idea or something would just jump out at me that would help me find my way home. The streets were empty and silent with not so much as a dog barking to keep me company. The fog and the mist descended covering the whole map and everything in my line of sight; the cold morning air bristled against my exposed skin filling me with a most unwelcome feeling of anxiety. I never liked being afraid. My father always believed that the feeling of fear is a sign of weakness. I have tried all my life to drill the idea out of my head but the memory of my upbringing haunts me even here after so many years and so far away from home.

After wondering around aimlessly for who knows how long I eventually began to accept the fact that I was lost, and I wasn't holding onto much hope of finding my way home anytime soon. I think the drug that the templars forced in my face was still having a strange effect on me. I felt dizzy and tired still. Not your normal everyday 'I'm tired I want to go home' this was something a little more intense. Let's just put it this way. At that point in time the cold filthy pavement floor looked like it would be a comfortable place to take a nap on.

_My notebook!_ My inner self screamed and rang through my body as I was scrambling through my pockets and touching random parts of my body to check if it had been skilfully tucked away where the templars wouldn't have found it. I touched the back pockets of my shorts and found the book tucked away underneath my shirt and my shorts. I pulled it out and flicked through the pages in suspicion that vandalism would have occurred. Thankfully not, all the drawings that were most dear to me had remained. If anything were to happen to this I would lose the will to go on. I've had it since childhood and it's the only thing I have left since my parents were killed. I smiled as I saw the odd little doodles that I drew when I was as young as 6, one drawing I came across made my face fill with life and joy that I forgot I was capable of feeling; the drawing was a little stick figure of a woman and a little label that said "MUMMY" with the y backwards. I skimmed to the back of the book to see my most recent drawings and I note fell out of the page. I cocked my head wondering if it was a page that had fallen out but instead came across a rather unpleasant set of words.

_You are a very talented artist my dear. – Haytham._

_Ew!_ My inner self cringed at the thought of that vile man even touching my most prized possession. I put the note in my pocket, while shaking my head in attempt to rid the thought of him looking through my book from my mind. I then put the book at the side of my shorts so it didn't look like I had an oddly shaped backside and continued my walk of no hope through New York.

I lacked the mental strength to contemplate ways around the sticky mess I'd gotten stuck into; I didn't feel like getting angry at Haytham when he wasn't there. No need to waste my repressed anger on a wall or on a random passerby, not when I could use his face by the end of the night.

_He can tell me that I need to stay with him but that doesn't mean I have to make it a pleasant stay._

"Killer on the loose! Stay in your homes! Hide your children!" I heard an overly panicked herald scream a short distance ahead.

I walked over to the crowd that seem to be buying all of this bollocks that they were serving. I tried to push my way to the front, gaining looks and mumbles from the crowd.

"Show some respect,"

"Learn your place woman,"

"The nerve of some people,"

The list of comments is endless. It was nothing I haven't heard a million times before. You learn some tolerance, or in this case ignorance after hearing the same comments time and time again. You would honestly be amazed at how the comments are so similar; they were mainly sexist comments which were to be expected in a way. It doesn't mean I have to listen or approve of the status quo. I was raised to believe that one is only superior to those opposed if one chooses their own path and refuse to follow what is to be believed to be the norm. It's an old saying that I never truly understood until my parents were killed which is irony in itself but somehow makes sense to me.

I reached the front of the crowd to see the herald being a bit shifty holding a poster with a poor sketch of a boy with a hood _wanted dead or alive, 10,000 pounds reward _I rolled my eyes with a familiar grin. If I can only re-live the memory of my first time being on a wanted poster, it was indeed a fine memory.

I took a closer look at the sketch that looked like it was drawn by an 80 year old blind man with arthritis; the more I concentrated on it the more familiar it was becoming.

_Oh my good lord! It's Connor!_ As soon as the realisation hit me I began to laugh uncontrollably at how stupid Connor must be to leave a city without at least attempting to clear his notoriety. The laughing seemed to attract the attention of the herald who stopped shouting out to the public and began to stare and raise an eyebrow at me. The crowd just watched with confused and/or scared faces.

"We don't like trouble makers round 'ere lass" I heard someone near me speak with a matter of authority. I got control of myself to see a gang of redcoats closing in toward me with their weapons. I began to back away slowly but the crowd behind me refused to move.  
"We thinks you should come with us little miss, we got somethin' special for a pretty little bud like yourself," he gestured toward me. He gave me the impression that he was under the influence of alcohol but I followed him nonetheless; I didn't want to start a riot considering the state I was in and there wasn't a doubt in my mind that the crowd wouldn't have made the situation any better.

As I was following the group of redcoats not even thinking of where they could possibly be taking me, the people we were passing were staring not only at me but at the scheming redcoats in front of me. They were giving glances that showed blatant pity and fear as if they knew exactly what they wanted with me; yet not one of them gave a warning or a look that said run. I doubt that any even gave me eye contact though the entire walk. My faith in humanity's free thinking was shrinking, in that moment I felt like I was fighting a losing battle by being part of the assassin order. Our society is so consumed with false pride and empty threats that even giving eye contact to a person who appears to have opposed the way the British run this city is a risk not worth taking, makes my heart sink.

The gang of thugs stopped a short distance in front of me and one of them turned around to face me to give me a crooked smile with narrowed eyes and content written all over his face. _He has his head up his own arse,_ my inner self mocked.

I walked closer to them and they were gesturing me to the narrow alley that was blocked off at the other end. My mouth dropped open and my eyes widened. My heart felt like it took a steep drop down to my stomach as I realised exactly what they wanted with me.

I turned on my heel to run away but much to my surprise more redcoats had snuck their way right behind me to make sure I didn't make a swift escape. One of them had grabbed my arm and roughly pulled me into the alley. I screamed at a volume that could have broken all windows in a 5 mile radius; It caught the attention of everyone who was innocently passing by, but not for the reasons I would have wanted at that point. All of which who had heard my cries for help had taken it as a warning and had ran as fast as I wish could have.

Before I could have reacted by kicking and fighting my way out, they pushed me up against the wall so forcefully I bumped my nose on the brick which was enough for me to let my guard down to which he responded by putting his hand over my mouth and ripped the top part of my shirt enough to expose my breasts making the other perverted men growl with pleasure. I struggled and tried kicking him from me but he was just slightly stronger than I was capable of handling. He pressed his hand a little harder on my mouth; I hooked my teeth around the skin I could manage to get a grip on to which he growled angrily. Another man turned me around and punched me across the face hard enough to make me stumble and end up on the floor, the other men laughed. I could feel emotions rising from my core to my surface making my eyes well up. I turned from the men not wanting them to see my signs of weakness showing.

"That wasn't very nice," one of them said while pulling my arm up to his face where the horrible stench of alcohol was lingering around his face making me sneer with disgust.

He pushed me away from him and against the wall again where I hit the back of my head.

"looky ere' you bitch. Ain't nothin' personal, you're just too nice-lookin' to let pass by." He came close to my face.

He grabbed my arm with a bone crushing force and rammed it against the wall behind me which made me yell and cry with pain while using my other hand to try and push him away from me. One of his accomplices came around the side of me and started fondling my exposed chest while I was bearing the intense pain being inflicted onto me. Another man came to the front of me and tried unbuttoning my shorts to which I screamed again and tried kicking him away but no use. I had never felt so helpless in my life. Tears were streaming down my face, soaking my cheeks and reddening my eyes. Cries like a newborn puppy were desperately escaping my throat in my pathetic attempt to get someone to help. Anyone.

"Unhand her!" I heard another male's voice from a short distance away.

All the men rose to attention, relieving me of the pain and torment I was feeling both physically and mentally. I quickly covered my breasts feeling the humiliation cloud over me from both not being the dangerous killer I was raised to be and being abused in this manner. The unpleasant mixture of these realisations was making my insides burn with emotions that were near impossible to bottle.

"And what if we say no?" one of the men said to the unknown saviour.

"If you leave now, I will spare your life." He said in a calm tone.

_Wait, I know that voice!_ My subconscious screamed. I tried to stand to see him but the pain was making it impossible to move. I looked up past the men in attempt to see my saviours face and I saw my attackers flying in all directions from beatings coming from both my saviour's hands and feet. I then caught a glimpse of his face. Indeed, my suspicions were confirmed.

Haytham Kenway. My kidnapper and saviour... strange, but I was somewhat grateful. I was in no position to turn down a helping hand. He really was a skilled fighter. Without the men there to hit he would look just like a performer walking on air. I kept staring in wonder wanting the pain that kept bringing back to reality to end.

I tried to grip my arm close to me. It wasn't bleeding or cut. The crushing feeling that the redcoat had inflicted with his god like strength felt like it was still present. Unbearable was an understatement.

I looked up to see him stood over these unconscious bodies that were grunting. He had a face of pure horror and regret staring at me. I curled up trying to hide the emotion that had poured from deep within from the man that every cell in my body wanted to hate and push away just as much as these other men.

"It's over now," he said approaching me.

"Don't touch me!" I shouted, exposing my face with wet cheeks and bloodshot eyes.

He kneeled beside me and touched my arm in a matter of a caring reassuring way but made me flinch with pain that had started to subside was brought back to the light. I yelped in pain and pulled my arm instantaneously to my body. He looked in my eyes then at my arm and shook his head in frustration and anger either with the men or at me.

"We need to get you to a doctor," he said, standing.

"I mean it! Don't touch me!" I shouted at him feeling my anger toward the men being turned toward him for some reason, probably because he was the only one that was there.

He took off his cape and wrapped me in it after seeing that my chest was fully exposed and wasn't really possible to cover with my hands.

"Thank you," I muttered feeling conflicted feelings toward him. I couldn't even look at him.

"I'm taking you to a doctor" he said in a demanding way.

Before I could object he picked me up and was carrying me in a bridal style which was comforting in a way but made me cringe inside slightly and made my arm throb with pain as he carefully tried to avoid putting too much pressure onto it. I covered myself with his cape in attempt to hide my shame. The bottled emotions started seeping to the surface again and I began openly sobbing into Haytham's shoulder. He held me tighter and rested his cheek on my head as I was crying.

"I am so sorry." He whispered, nuzzling against the top of my head.

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*ahem* well... there you have it.  
*runs away*


	4. Heaven and Hell

Hey guys, so the last chapter was rather... what's the word? Extreme? I felt a bit weird while writing it but I feel like the story kinda needed something emotional to help it take off.

I listen to music to inspire me for all my chapters, the last chapter was inspired by run this town by Jay-Z and this chapter was inspired by get it over with by Rihanna. If you know the song than you know what you are in for ;)

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Enjoy.

"It's dark in the day, I say now, don't complain," I heard a phantom utter. I opened my eyes to find myself lying on the ground of the frontier; it was however in a much more attractive state than I remember. It was as if it had an added sense of freedom.

I peered up to the tree tops watching the leaves sway in the light breeze up so high. Golden light began to break through the opening that the treetops had so kindly left and fell upon my face filling me with brief moments of warmth.

"Look up at the sun, it's just a cloud away," the phantom had spoken again with words of riddles.

I was exploring, letting my curiosity run away with my imagination, for me that is never a good combination. I took off and ran toward the growing light at the end of the path of trees. The light shined bright like a flame. I needed to feel the sun on my skin once more. The spring air was light and relaxing and became increasingly exhilarating with every breath that I took. The warm air surrounded me and cuddled the skin that it touched making my thoughts none existent.

"The promised land," I whispered to myself. I felt like this place was my own personal heaven. It combined everything that I love about life.

Nothing seemed to matter to me, for once I was content with my own wants and needs not giving a thought to others feelings or what is best for the order and how others would react to the decisions I had made independently. It wasn't until this moment I realized how much of a people pleaser I am. The moment I got everything was the moment that I reflected on my past.

"Oi!" I heard a male voice approaching from behind.

I turned my head to see a redcoat with his face covered. I tried to grab the hilt of my blade assuming that this was going to result in conflict. The blade was not present so I was just clutching thin air quite obliviously; the redcoat chuckled at my misfortune.

"What do you want? What are you doing?" I asked. My promised land had been ruined.

He removed the cloth covering his face to reveal the sassy smile that he had been pulling.

"Oh, it's you," I dropped my guard with relief filling me.

"Hello, my dear," he said maintaining the sassy smile. I did indeed hate it when he called me that but this time it somehow drew pleasure from deep within.

"Now I know that I am in heaven," I said without thinking. He moved close and penetrated my bubble of personal space.

"I was thinking the same thing," I blushed at his words.

He caressed my cheeks that were aflame under his gentle fingertips that were tracing circles in my cheeks.

"Whenever I see your beautiful face that is exactly where I am," he added softly and close to my face, I was in a trance by his gorgeous eyes staring into mine.

"Arianna?"

"Yes?" I replied with desperation dripping from my voice.

"Kiss me, now," he demanded, brushing his nose on mine. I didn't make him say it again.

My fingers trailed their way to the back of his neck which I stroked slightly, his breathing was getting intense the more I teased and his hot breath was hitting my face making me even more lustful. I pulled his neck toward mine not wasting a second longer and moulded my lips to his; they fit like they were made for each other. The softness of his lips was driving me insane in all ways as he was making good use of them on mine.

"You're so afraid to cry," the phantom had spoken again. I pulled away to watch my promised land grow darker and begin to fade.

"But you're heart's been feeling dry," it continued as my surroundings started to break into pieces.

"It's time to change," were the last words I heard the phantom whisper before the ground seemed to dissolve beneath my feet and send me into an endless pit of nothingness.

"My lady, please wake up," I heard a soft unfamiliar voice.

I quickly sat up in a bed where I had been wrapped up and began screaming frantically, the unknown man was holding my shoulders as if he was expecting this reaction from me.

"That was awful! What in the world did you give me?" I shouted, assuming the stranger was a doctor.

"Not a thing my lady, you passed out shortly before master Kenway brought you here," he uttered, calm tone still intact. All of yesterday's events streamed through my memory as if I was re-living them.  
"I will be back momentarily, I have to inform master Kenway that you are awake," the calm tone he continued with was riding up my spine, I knew it was to keep me calm but it was getting beyond the point of irritation.

"Wa-wait he's here?"

"Indeed, I don't think he left throughout the entire night, he did seem awfully anxious about the state you were in," he replied.

"Why?" I uttered one of the questions I was longing answers for.

"That I do not know, I will happily summon him for you my lady," before I could object he had called for his presence.

There were many questions arising to my attention but none of which I could have asked without seeming ungrateful for his rescue. As much as I hated to admit it, if he didn't appear, there would have been no hope for me, I would have certainly been violated then killed.

"Good day, my dear," I shot a glance at the door to see my saviour. I rolled my eyes at that name again.  
"Well if you're not going to tell me your name I see no other way to address you, my dear," he said walking closer to the bed I was resting in.

"I thought you knew my name?" I questioned dimly.

"No," he looked confused, one eyebrow raised.

"Oh yes, I was dreaming," I thought out loud and instantly regretted it.

"You dreamt about me?" he asked pulling that sassy smile identical to the one in my dream. I flushed at the memory that I tried hard not to recall but his presence was as if the memory was still being lived.

"Now, I didn't say that," I looked at him with as face that couldn't have been more serious.

"I don't think you needed too," his eyes narrowed but his smile was still present. I couldn't keep eye contact without flushing.

He walked closer to the bed until he was mere feet in front of me which made me tense up with discomfort; he reached out to the end of the bed and picked up a folded shirt that I hadn't even noticed.

"Here, I took the liberty to acquire a replacement for you after... ummm," I took the shirt from him not wanting him to finish the sentence; the memory was embarrassing enough I didn't need a recall as well.

"Thank you," I looked at the shirt that had obviously been recently tailored meaning that it was specially made. _Why would he do that?_

"Why did you stay overnight?" I addressed him, his back was to me it took me longer than it should to realise that he wanted me to put it on. So I quickly did before he turned to answer my question.

"When I found you, you were being abused and miss treated by the savages that this city dare to call their protectors and despite my efforts to deny it: it was ... Partly, my fault," his soft eyes gazed into mine.

"It was ALL your fault!" my random outburst made his eyes widen.

"Really?" he shouted back in sarcasm.  
"So, when you accepted my challenge you knew you had no hope of succeeding and wondered so far into New York that you were attacked by those men 'it was all my fault' was it?" he raised an eyebrow and I sneered at him and he smiled at the small victory that I had allowed him.  
"Oh yes!" he walked toward the desk at the other side of the room.

I quickly looked down to have a quick glance at the shirt he had made for me. It was rather tight if I'm honest. It was a short sleeved black shirt with buttons leading down to my belly button. I stroked the silver silk lining running down the seam at the side in an admiring way. It was suitable never the less. Not an over the top corset that the ladies of the colonies wear in the name of fashion that would have been impossible to climb or to fight in.

"I believe that this is yours my dear," he handed me my notebook.

"Will you stop touching my stuff?" I shouted and snatched the book from his hands. I skimmed through the pages and smiled as I did yesterday.

"The sun is just a cloud away," I heard Haytham vaguely.

"What?" I shouted and my gaze darted to attention staring at him with razor attention.

"I said: would you like to come downstairs with me?" he seemed confused.

"Oh," I sighed. _That didn't seem insane at all_. That dream had made me very tense; I can't help but think the words of riddles that the phantom spoke had a hidden meaning. I never was good at working out riddles but this one was toying with my perception.

"Is everything ok?" he asked.

"Yes," I replied bluntly staring down at my book.

"You're lying," I heard his footsteps approaching. I looked up and gave eye contact.

"I know, but why do you care?" I asked a half serious question.

"I honestly don't know, my dear," I rolled my eyes again. That time it was a reaction, I wasn't trying to be impolite.

"I guess... I kind of have to tell you my name after everything that's happened don't I?" I asked with a half smile.

"I suppose," he regained the sassy smile of victory, indeed that was going to be the most annoying part of him, even more annoying than calling me 'my dear.'

"My name is Arianna," I uttered, uncomfortable with the knowledge that he now knows my name.

"Arianna," he repeated to himself, a part of me withered at the sound of him saying my name but another part cheered.  
"You are English by the sounds of it, but your name is not, were your parents English?" he asked rather casually. I got out of bed trying to maintain my balance and not stumble in front of him.

"The story of my past is a story for another time mister Kenway," I smirked; he shook his head slightly at my mocking tone.  
"And that is a time I don't think either of us will see," I continued with wide eyes and a playful smile.

"I somehow think otherwise, Arianna," he joined in with the spar I was making of the conversation. _This naming thing is going to get real old real quick_.

"And why is that?" I asked losing the playfulness I had.

"Because you lost my challenge," he replied, mouthing the words he said more powerfully than he said them.

"Oh bollocks," I muttered to myself. He chuckled at yet another victory that I had bestowed upon him.

"Any objections? I don't mind, I was rather prepared for an argument," he was digging at me or another victory.

"No, I made a commitment... it was a stupid commitment, but a commitment none the less. I shall honour it. Besides, just because I have to stay with you does not mean I have to make it a pleasant stay for you," I smirked at my turn at a victory.

"I expected nothing more," he mocked.  
"Come along then, I shall show you where you will be staying." He led me out of the doctors after bidding his farewells and I said my thanks for his services.

I knew I was in for an eventful few weeks... or until I could find a way to escape the Templar's clutches.

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Okay, this chapter honestly means a lot to me. I haven't the slightest clue why but I love it! The riddles I have hidden in this chapter do mean something and will play a vital role in the next few chapters. If you want to have a go at working them out yourself then go ahead but please don't post your answers in the reviews (spoilers) if you do manage to work them out feel free to PM me and if you get them right I will give you a shout out in the next chapter. ;)

My last chapter got the most reviews, I LOVE getting reviews. Keep posting reviews they never ever get old or annoying I read all of them and they all make me smile. I love all of my followers and supporters (you guys ^_^) thank you guys! Next chapter will be up soon :D xxx


	5. A Dry Heart

Got a lot of followers since I posted the last chapter… I went from 17 to 24! Wow wee! Welcome my new followers! You are in for a bumpy ride! ;)

Chapter inspired from Whatcha Say by Jason Derulo

Enjoy :D

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Later that same day I was in the inn in which the Templars had made refuge. I thought it was a bit of a foolish move for them to take me to their main base, I realised shortly after that they intended to make me stay. Fat chance that I was ever going to just sit there comfortably. I already started planning my escape; I had made several notes of doors and windows that would be carelessly left open during ungodly hours of the night that no Templar would give a second thought to guard. There were not many places to escape from if I am perfectly honest. I had only discovered about 2 which were not good enough as I am certain they will be difficult in any way I try to go about my ways so I needed several alternatives.

"So then lass!" a drunken Thomas Hickey had approached me.  
"What's your problem?" he asked.

"Excuse me?" I poked my head up from my notes.

"You call yourself an assassin, but you's been captured twice that I can recall, and I have only known you for 2 days," he took a sip from his drink while giving me the eye.

"If you weren't off your rocker from booze I would gladly show you how much of a capable fighter I am," I made a meaningless comment not feeling any need to prove myself to this drunkard challenging my skills.

"Why not now? Are you scared?" his alcoholic breath was hitting me hard and I pushed him away from my face.

"Have you never heard of an honourable battle? I would have a bit of an unfair advantage considering the state you are currently in," I said making a note of the fact that the Templars might not be as big of a threat as I thought if they get as bladdered as hickey was at that point in time.

"Alright then, when I is sober. You are on!" he threw his cup against the wall and spluttered.

"I look forward to it," I added a sarcastic comment.

"I'm gonna get you a drink," he stumbled from his seat.

"That isn't necessary, thank you," I objected.

"You's gonna be 'ere a while Arianna, you might as well get comfy," he said my name and my blood boiled.

"Who told you my name?" I asked calmly.

"Ol' Haytham did," he replied thinking nothing of it.

"I'm going to kill him," I muttered.

"Why?" he handed me an ale.

"A name might not mean a lot to some people but I don't like just anyone to know my name, it makes me feel uncomfortable,"

Arianna was not my real name, but it felt like it was my real name, it was posing as my real name for the best part of 14 years so it was becoming a part of my identity if it was not already part of it. Now no-one has called me Saoirsena in years, but if any of these Templars were to call me that or find out that it was my real name a part of my would die… a large part.

"You assassins are a weird bunch," he commented.

"We can't be anymore strange than the Templars are," I muttered into my ale.

"What makes you say that?" he gave me eye contact.

"I don't understand any of you. you have this goal of a perfect world, but why? What is so bad with letting humanity take its own course?" I asked a rather dangerous question to a Templar. He chuckled slightly.

"I'm not the best person to be askin' stuff like that, I'm not in it for all that bollocks, I do it for the money," he muttered.

"What?" I asked, even more confused than I was before.  
"You sold your humanity and your beliefs for a handful of change?" I asked disgusted at his motivation.

"It's more than a handful sweet'eart," he smiled proudly at me. I glared at him.  
"Don't you be lecturing me on what motivates me, you an' I are a lot more similar than you would like to admit, I guarantee that a lot of you assassins don't originally do all that you do for the greater good, you do it for revenge am I right?" he asked and I turned my head away.  
"See, we might be different in our goals lass, but our motives are practically the same, selfish motives, but the only difference between our motives is that I admit that it's selfish," he smiled victoriously at me and I stared knowing that he was right.  
"Enjoy it here Arianna, there isn't much you can do about it now is there?" he asked rhetorically.

"I plan to Thomas, trust me," I smiled bluntly at him; we clinked our glasses together and drank the day away.

I can't remember exactly how many ales we got through I don't like to admit that I'm drunk but this time I don't think I was as far gone as he was but I was loose enough to have a deep conversation with someone that every cell in my body was longing to hate but somehow I couldn't get any emotion toward him. I didn't see him as a crush or an ally or anything like that. I just saw him as someone to talk to when you are having a bad day, I still do to be honest, and for a Templar he was ok.

"You did what?" I shouted with amusement.

"I was just chillin' in a corn field minding my own business, I was supposed to be gettin' Johnson his papers back but I didn't really care at the time. That's when Charles and Haytham walked up and I met them for the first time and charley clearly had never heard of personal space, I never did like that dick. He's alright when it comes to work but personally I would happily trade 'Im for a few beers," I couldn't help but laugh at the personal bonds formed between his allies.

"So what actually happened?" I asked intrigued at his rebellious ways.

"I fink he said something like: show some respect boy. I shoved him out of my face, if I didn't I would have smacked him one,"

"I'm guessing that both of them were as pompous and as annoying as they are now," I half questioned sipping my ale.

"They have loosened over the years, we all have but I still can't stand either of them," I laughed and he joined me just as I saw both of the men we were conversing about walking toward us.

"You two seem to be getting along well," Charles made his first comment and Thomas did a spit take with his ale out of laughter and I couldn't help but join in his amusement and we both ended up in fits of inappropriate laughter. I looked up at the two men, Charles was sneering at both of us but Haytham had this cheeky smile aimed toward me and I sniggered at him not wanting him to find our actions funny.

"Have you had anything to eat today Arianna?" I heard Haytham ask.

"Not that I can remember," I answered before downing the last of my ale. He snatched my glass from me.  
"Hey!"

"Before you can think about this you need to think about your stomach, which isn't going to take this alcohol very well when you have had, no food," he looked serious.

"I'm fine! I'm having a nice chat with Thomas and you have so kindly ruined my good mood. Leave." I demanded trying to find another glass.

"Come now, it seems this unpleasant stay you are giving me is now backfiring my dear, please be reasonable," he said, lightly pulling my arm; I followed not wanting to argue as I knew my alcohol tolerance was at its limit.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"It is around 4pm" he replied sitting down at a table with me. I grunted in response.  
"Alcohol can be harsh my dear," I heard amusement in his voice.

"It's not that, I have spent 2 nights in this blasted city and I can't remember either of them so forgive me if I'm not particularly looking forward to tonight," I explained.

"A series of unfortunate events my dear, as long as you don't plan on wondering off you will be fine," he bluntly replied. _Oh snap, well no plan is perfect_.

A woman who looked like she had a great many things on her mind placed a chicken in front of us leaving us to pick it apart and dish it out ourselves.

"You already ordered?" I asked

"Call me a psychic but I had a feeling that you hadn't eaten today," he said with a sassy smile.

"Your sassy smile is growing tired mister Kenway," the smile dropped from his face making me smile with content.

"I don't know what you mean my dear," his smile returned but mine dropped.  
"Why do all of our conversations have to be awkward Arianna?" he asked refraining eye contact.

"I can think of many reasons Haytham," I replied bluntly

"Name one," he was trying to be clever with me.

"I don't like you, that's a perfectly good reason,"

"And why don't you like me?" he asked, genuinely wanting to know why.

"What's to like? Can you think of anything for that mister Kenway?" I asked wondering if he can actually answer that question.

"Well, for one I know that you like my sassy smile," he said while doing exactly that. I smiled in response and his smile grew bigger.

"You impossible man," I made a minor comment.

We made no more conversation as we slowly began to eat the chicken that was in front of us, it was indeed the best home cooked meal I've had in a while. Then again it was the only home cooked thing I have had in a while; I didn't get much food on the homestead. Connor was never around to have anything and I never saw him eat anyway and Achilles sorted himself out so that's exactly what I did. I usually went to the inn with Myriam for some lunch but I just picked at the food that was in front of us most of the time.

"You can continue drinking yourself to oblivion now," he didn't look at me while standing up.

"I'm sorry," I muttered.

"It's quite alright, I don't wish to treat you like a true prisoner so there isn't much else for you to do," he said lifting his tone.

"Why can't you treat me like a true prisoner? I actually see no reason why you haven't killed me yet,"

"I don't have the time or the energy to have you stay as a true prisoner, it is too much effort on my part. Forgive me for answering your last question with a question but why is killing you an option in itself let alone the only option?" he stood back straight and arms bound behind his back. His true British ways were showing. He was raised in a posh, rich and well-mannered environment which you can tell from the way he walks, talks and acts.

"Because I am an assassin and you are a Templar, that should be enough reason for me to be at the end of your blade," I was giving him excuses to kill me; I was playing a very dangerous game indeed.

"Wrong my dear, killing you will anger the assassins to draw up a plan to flank us, with you alive they could try to perform a rescue which would give me the opportunity to kill them all one by one," he said with fire burning in his eyes, my hatred for him was growing stronger.

"Forgive me for objecting in your bizarre motives, but my allies are not as naïve as you would like to believe. They wouldn't fall for a plan so ill prepared and clearly problematic," I was trying hard not bubble up in anger. I tried to walk away to calm myself.

"Well you fell into my trap and are now my prisoner so you are clearly delusional with your assumptions to the assassins," he said walking toward me.

"You need a reality check," I said through my teeth.

"Why is that then? Because I see the world for what it should be and past the selfish acts the assassins perform? You all try and dress your words up all pretty to make them appear saint like but underneath all the dressing any fool can see your actions all benefit you and you only," I lost control of my senses at that moment as I turned around and back handed him across the face so hard the sound echoed and caught the attention of all the Templars I could see watching from all corners of the room.

"I have lost a great deal of things in my life! I have lost my family and several of my friends fighting for the people. If I was fighting for myself they would all still be alive! I have watched people like you kill the innocent because they stood in your way and this delusional vision you have of a perfect world! Guess what? It's your perfect world no-body else's which is why you will always have people opposing you! Because you are too blind to see that your words represent you but have no connection to the people you claim to serve in any form!" I shouted in his face.

"We seek to protect, to lead mankind in the right direction and to stop them making the mistakes that they so stupidly make! We are saving them all from their own human weakness!" he defended.

"What is so wrong with letting mankind make its own mistakes while making their own choices? Making mistakes is a part of life, it makes us human. You are stripping every one of their humanity and free thinking and what adds insult to injury you convince everyone including yourself that it's for the greater good." I was close to killing everyone in the room.

"It is for the greater good, the only people opposed are the assassins. You just can't handle the fact that we are right and we are winning this war." He stated calmly.

"What's the prize? The order? Your perfect world? You have to go through all of this poverty, war and hatred just to get either one?" I asked. He and everyone else in the room fell silent. I sniggered.

"I've had enough. You are very good at the game mister Kenway but I don't think I have the strength to play anymore!" I shouted.  
"All the assassins ever do is give and give never thinking about themselves or what people may think of them. The Templars take and take. Never thinking about what others think or want only what they envision for the future. But never mind, if it's your vision then it must be right. Right?" I added sarcastically, before walking away.

"Arianna," I heard Haytham start a sentence.

"Leave me alone," I added trying to escape from the room and to my quarters.

I am no coward, I do not weep at the hands of my enemies, but my family were brought up today and any argument that will involve them will remind me of all the kind things that my parents would do for me and my well-being no matter what lengths they have to go to just to do it. I joined the order to do that but for everyone else in the world who lack the courage to stand up for what they believe in. I miss my parents very dearly and after this day I was mentally planning how I would kill all of the Templars starting with Haytham.

'you're so afraid to cry, but you're heart's been feeling dry" I thought on that riddle that for some reason was brought to the surface. I was afraid to cry indeed. But what does the last part mean? _Maybe you've been feeling a lack of love_ I thought on it. This riddle was bringing me a lot of pain as I knew this riddle was linked to what I have been feeling today. The phantoms words were hidden meaning indeed. I didn't like the fact that they were coming true.

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There you go guys. The next chapter I managed to finish in 5 hours. No breaks! Haha! I am such a saddo! Oh well. I felt inspired to write this chapter from all the crappy music that I listen to.

I've been meaning to say. I do leave a lot of questions unanswered in some chapters. All of them are done purposely and I intend to answer all of them ok :D xx

Leave a review PLEASE! x


	6. High Defences

Hey guys, I am sure that some of you noticed that I have a new hater… lol, seriously although it was sweet of some of you to ask me if I was ok and message this guy asking him what his problem is, his is just a hater and he's not the first I've ever had, I am not taking any of their comments to heart. Why? Because he thought that the story was in my point of view, he thought Arianna was from the future and for some reason he questioned the lack of racism toward Achilles? I fail to see his logic :L

*rant over*

This story is a slow paced romance as I feel that romances that start too soon have no plot and can't really go anywhere, that being said these next few chapters will be aiming toward the actual romance starting. STARTING NOW! YAY!

Chapter inspired from Heart Attack by Demi Lovato (I think this song pretty much sums up how Arianna feels about Haytham)

Enjoy

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It had been a few weeks since my last encounter with the power mad leader of the order; I had barely seen him since my last rant at him, we past each other several times in the hall or anywhere else but it was always a case of awkward eye contact or no eye contact at all. My argument was valid and at that point in time I was still angry at him, not for his Templar pessimistic points but for daring to call me and my allies selfish after everything I have seen him do.

That being said I was growing more comfortable with his presence, as comfortable as you can get after someone kidnaps you and drugs you but I had made more notes on him than any of the other Templars because he is a tough nut to crack, he shows several sides to a personality; the ones that I have seen in him are: angry, defensive, persuasive, charismatic and typically British, these were the sides of him that I didn't particularly like and wasn't surprised when these sides of him were beginning to show however there are several sides to him that as a prisoner I would not have expected to see and those are: protective, sweet, kind, gentle, sassy and the biggest is flirtatious. Sometimes these are all at once or just on their own; the notes I have made are basically a summary of why he is like this - _the best kind of killers mould their personality to fit the person so that they appear likeable to nearly everyone including their enemies but even then these people are often misunderstood_.

In that point of time I was in my bed chamber that I had been given, it was a simple room, the only pieces of furniture there was my bed and a desk with a chair. I spent more time at the desk than I did in the bed. I was still planning my escape but I was making little progress, I realised shortly after the argument with mister Kenway that I had left my escape notes on the bar for the whole world to see. I lost almost all my hope of trying anything sneaky after that as I am sure they have all been warned.

I heard a faint knocking at my door. My inner self was cursing in various ways, I really had lost the will to face any Templars wanting something from me, all I wanted was what I had been getting for the past few weeks and that was to be left in my solitude.

"Come in," I said reluctantly wishing that it would not be 'mister sassy smiles.'

"'ello, Arianna," I heard Thomas Hickey's voice I turned to see his face peering around the door. I felt a sense of relief, I still didn't mind his company after so many weeks, and he was the kind of person that you would like at first but then he would slowly start to eat away at your nerves until you wanted to knock him out.

"Thomas, what can I do for you?" I asked, hiding my lack of an ability to care about anything other than my escape at that moment.

"It's more like what I can do for you sweet'art," he gave a dashing smile; this was one of the few moments I had seen him sober, most of the time he is so drunk that he can't stand.

"Whatever do you mean?" I asked giving a slight smile to his playful ways. He walked in further and closed the door and shot me a look of concern before turning and sitting very carelessly on my bed.  
"Thomas, what's wrong?" I asked standing and walking over, I have never seen him look worried before and it was an unsettling feeling that I don't think either of us liked to see.

"You are the most forgetful lass I have ever seen in my life," he laughed.

"What have you done now?" I dropped my head not truly wanting to find out. His hand rose to my line of sight to present a set of papers folded up.

"You left these on the bar a few weeks ago," he said. I quickly snatched them from his hand and looked through them to check if the several amount of papers I left that night were all in that little fold he had handed me.

"Why on earth have you only just decided to tell me that you had them?" I asked feeling a sense of relief and worry running through my mind.

"Never found the right moment, no-one else knows about your plan to escape by the way, I found it quite amusin' how you have actually started plannin' it," he uttered those words with a chuckle.

"Why is that funny?" I raised an eyebrow.

"you actually think you have a shot at leaving, ol' Haytham might not have been treating you like a prisoner but he knows what he's doin'" he said to me defending the Templar ways.

"Why didn't you tell him?" I said giving a solid facial structure.

"What's he ever done for me?" he questioned with arms out.

"If it wasn't for him you wouldn't be able to get out of your head with the amount of drinks you have all the time," I said with the idea of loyalty lacking in his sense.

"Are you defendin' him?" he asked with a sarcastic smile.

"No, I am questioning your loyalty," I said returning the smile.

"I ain't got no loyalty, they pay me so I do the work I explained this once already," he raised his arms to a shrug and I shook my head slightly amused at the Templars 'close circle of friends' as I liked to call it.

"So why did you do this for me?" I asked, with a slight giggle.

"Coz you ain't bad," he winked at me and I laughed and he joined me.

"Thank you" I smiled.

"Ready for our fight?" he asked completely off topic which confused me slightly.  
"I said that I will fight you when I am sober, well I'm sober and so are you, I don't see why not" he said answering my unspoken question.

"Fine, I have nothing better to do," I said walking to the door.

We walked down to the ground floor of the inn and I was starting to regret my decision when my inner voice stated _Haytham isn't going to like this._ it was an opportunity to show off as I knew that all of the Templars had been questioning my skills as far as fighting and defending myself but I knew that showing off in front of everyone was something that I was probably going to get lectured for. I was excited to show everyone my capability in a fight nevertheless. We reached the bottom and I saw a beaked hat out of the corner of my eye _oh bollocks, no turning back now._ He was watching and a part of me knew that he knew exactly why I was there.

"You might regret this," I turned to see Thomas Hickey in a fighting position and a circle of peers was forming around us.

"I will not regret putting you in your place," I replied. We circled each other in an aggressive matter and I saw Haytham and Charles push their way to the front.

"You over-estimate yourself, too bad such a pretty face will have to go to waste," I heard a huge amount of 'oooh!'s coming from the crowd. _Oh! A verbal spar, I can handle that._

"That will easily turn the tables to my advantage, unlike you with your triple wide ego and a mouth to match," I shouted and I got a louder reaction from the crowd and hickey stood up straight with a smile and shook his head.

He slowly closed in to me and I was on red alert, he closed the remaining space quickly and raised a fist to me that made the crowd get increasingly louder the closer to my face it was getting, I caught his fist moving at a break neck speed and I twisted it enough to get him whining, the crowd cheered and I shot a glance in the direction of Haytham and Charles who both looked surprised. To show off even more I grabbed his neck while my previous action has made him lower his guard and I slammed him to the ground with a single swing. I saw Charles laugh slightly while I was scanning the crowd.

"Remember this next time you judge a 'pretty face'" I shouted after standing, the crowd began to laugh.

He grabbed my leg and hurled me to the ground so that I was face down. He tried to bend my leg but I kicked him off. I stood and he launched himself toward me, I still had my back to him so I thrust my leg backward to find his groin and got him on his knees, I took this moment to my advantage and lifted my leg swung it around and kicked Thomas around the face leaving him grunting on the floor.

"Alright! That is enough!" Haytham stood in, he looked at me with clear anger and I gave him a smile of victory that was blatant.  
"Arianna! Over there!" he pointed to the bar.  
"I will speak to you alone!" he shouted in my face but I only took his anger as a joke and laughed as I took my walk of victory.

I took out my notes to look at the riddles that I has written down, they were all in quotation marks and a side note of me trying to work them out as my experience in this place grew but the only one that I had tried is the one that reminded me of love.

"_It's dark in the day, I say now, don't complain."  
"Look at the sun it's just a cloud away."  
"You're so afraid to cry, but your heart's been feeling dry." – You're afraid to cry, but you feel a lack of love?_

"Arianna, behave yourself, I do not need this constant bother to have to keep an eye on you like a child," he approached me; I rolled my eyes at him.

"Hickey challenged my skills as he thought I was just another pathetic patron wanting to play hero and I wanted to put him in his place," I could see him wanting to hold back a smile which brought me a smile.

"Well, you did," he looked serious but his words were playful. I was surprised he managed to get a hold on his anger so quickly.  
"What are you hiding from me?" he looked at the piece of paper with the riddles on them.  
"Interesting, what is this?" he was against my back looking at the riddles over my shoulder with no personal space given.

"Just a dream that I had, these riddles have been bothering me, I just had this idea that they might mean something," I said.

"Is it the same dream you had about me?" I felt his hot breath tickle my neck and I shuddered.

"I never said I dreamt about you mister Kenway," I uttered those half serious words.

"But it was suggested my dear, I'm sorry but I'm going have to take that as a yes," his presence was disturbing my nerves. I could feel his breath on my neck and his clothes touching mine for brief moments that were completely off putting and I knew that he knew this and was getting some sort of joy out of it.

"Personal space is a virtue mister Kenway," I said turning and pushing him back slightly with one hand.

"Yes, meaning it must be earned," he gave into a sassy smile.

"What in the world is your problem?" I couldn't help but sound like I was joking even when that question was intended to be entirely serious.

"That last riddle, suggests that you desperately want someone to be close and to care for you but you are simply afraid of being hurt, and since I was in the dream that could suggest a number of outcomes," he said suggestively.

"You're disgusting," I sneered at him. He laughed.

"I am only stating was it suggests my dear, maybe you are supressing something," he gave me a wink. I knew what he was doing, he was trying to get under my skin, he was making my skin crawl and I was disturbed and disgusted on a number of levels even if part of me thought that he had a point.

"How do you know that's what the riddle means? It could mean anything," I attempted to defend the case that I have no feelings for him. I had mix emotions toward him, when I think about scenarios as such with this man I wince and retch but part of me giggles and has butterflies. These unpleasant mixes of emotions in the pit of my stomach were not enjoyable and their presence made little to no sense.

"Considering that you have written down something similar to that I think that both of our theories are correct," he stated.

"I know what you're doing," I stated turning my back.

"And what's that then?" he closed the gap between us and started stroking my arm.

"You are trying to get under my skin," I muttered tensing up. He came to one side and used one hand to move my chin to face him; our faces were mere inches from each other.

"And is it working?" I froze and so did he, it was tense and awkward for me until we both started leaning in further at the same time.

A gunshot interrupted us and a bullet had hit the woodwork above my head and I ducked for cover. I turned to try and see my attacker. I saw a group all with masks and guns. All of the Templars and me were fiercely outnumbered.

"Arianna?" a masked figure asked holding a pistol. I backed up slowly.

"Who's asking?" Haytham stood forward.

"You're killer!" he shouted and aimed the pistol at him.

"Haytham!" I screamed and pulled him out of the way of the oncoming bullet.

He then tugged my arm to the opposite direction the bullets were coming from the bullets were flying at us in a massive amount of numbers I was pulled out of a door that had been freshly kicked in and outside where we saw a few civilians who has heard the blasts and were running for their lives.

"We have to go!" he continued pulling me toward the buildings ahead of us.

"Where are we going?" I shouted in response.

"We need to find horses," he said, not answering my question.

"Stop pulling me!" I shouted trying to get my arm back. He stopped and turned to me.

"Then try to keep up!" he shouted in my face before taking off. I followed him with a slight anger to his outburst.

We had ran for over 15 minutes and I was losing the strength to follow any longer, we were running through confused crowds and distracted merchants who all hadn't a clue why we were running. We had lost the attackers by far but still we persist with this unknown destination. We finally came to a stop when we reached a field with several horses that belonged to the local stable. I stopped and began to pant in attempt to keep up with the lack of air I have had for the past few miles we ran for no reason apparent to me.

"Wait here, I'm going to rent a couple of horses," he said not giving eye contact.

"Do I have a choice?" I asked wanting my annoyance with him to show.

"Not really, just wait," he said making his turned anger apparent.

I walked over to one of the horses that I had shown interest in and instantly fell in love. I was an outdoors type of person so outdoors animals tugged on my heart strings. That brought up another reason why I don't like Connor. I went with him hunting at one point and watching him kill so many animals without so much as a wince and then watching him rip them apart for their skin and meat killed part of me inside, I did have a soft spot for the outdoors of the homestead and after all this time it was still full of surprises which I loved so much. In that moment while I was petting the horse my heart broke a little bit more than it already was, the place that had been my home since I was a young teenager was the one place that I wanted to be the most as I was running from a man that wanted me dead with a man that I haven't even known for a significant amount of time. I walked to the side of the horse and started petting its side and I brought its long face to mine for a slight sign of affection and a smile curled across my face.

"Having fun?" I heard Haytham approach.

"I was just-"

"I know, come on we need to leave," he said, trying to keep calm.

"Where are we going?" I asked softly.

"I have another place we can go to in Boston where several of my allies are still located."

"Won't our attackers be expecting that?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Exactly," he shot me his signature sassy smile. I climbed onto the horse and began our decent, he did the same.  
"Here is the part of this plan you aren't going to particularly like," he rode next to me for a second.

"What parts have I enjoyed so far?" I asked sarcastically. He sniggered.

"Until I can work out who is trying to kill us and why, you are stuck with me," he raised an eyebrow.

"I have always been stuck with you, what's changed?" I asked.

"You won't be able to ignore me like you have for the past few weeks," he accused.

"I haven't been ignoring you, I just thought our argument set the bar for an awkward conversation every time I might have tried, so I didn't bother," I defended.

"Excuses will be excuses," he added.

"Do not attempt to eat at my nerves at this point mister Kenway," I replied, he laughed in response.

"The temptation might soon get the better of me, my dear," he added pulling a smirk.

"Will power is strength" I uttered.

"True," he added.

"How long will this journey take?" I asked, changing the subject.

"A maximum of 3 days in my experience," he said knowing that I wouldn't like that answer.

"3 days?" I questioned my voice squeaking slightly.

"Indeed, it could be worse," his voice suddenly raised an octave.

"It could be better," I replied with a negative tone to which he tutted at.

"Your pessimistic points of view are going to get in the way of this endeavour," he turned to face me on his horse. I looked forward trying to focus on where I was riding.

"So are your sassy smiles and childish snipes but you don't see me complaining about them," I couldn't help but spar with him; I didn't notice that my voice had turned harsh but I'm almost certain that he did.

"You just did," he replied, my grip on the rains had tightened and as if on cue I heard a chuckle coming from Haytham's direction.  
"You are easily angered Arianna, it sometimes fits my amusement,"

"Why do you feel the need to constantly get under my skin?" I asked. My anger had disappeared.

"I try to test you Arianna, but a lot of the time there isn't a lot to be tested," I looked at him and he returned my eye contact.  
"You are easily angered, you are prideful, you are cocky and your attitude toward everything is un-lady like to put it mildly," his voice gained volume with every word and every word hit me hard.

"I don't really aim to please my enemies if I'm honest," I replied, I pretended not to care for his words that in reality wounded me.

"-However," I turned at his words to see him aiming a smile at my curiosity.  
"You're the only 'prisoner' that I have had that I have no desire to harm," _that was a compliment right?_

"Why did you put emphasis on prisoner" I asked.

"Because...because I don't feel like you are my prisoner... I like to see it as a victim of circumstance," he stuttered. I rolled my eyes at him. I gave a slight smile, it wasn't necessarily a compliment but it was the best thing I could get this man to say about me for a while, it suited for the time being in my opinion.

"Are you rolling your eyes at me Arianna?" I heard him say with a sarcastic tone.

"Have you finally stopped calling me 'my dear'?" I answered his question with a question.

"I thought you liked it when I did that," he stated.

"Is that the reason behind it?"

"I never said anything of the sort," he raised his eyebrows at me.

"I'm sorry but I'm going to have to take that as a yes" I winked at him as I uttered those repeated words.

"Don't start Arianna, I can easily treat you as a true prisoner," he tried to sound intimidating but I felt a lack of intimidation only amusement to suffice.

"I doubt you would," I said trying to push him further.

"So do I, but it still stands as a threat," he sounded calm. I turned to look at him with a face of wonder.  
"What?" he asked as I gave a questioning glance.

"How is it no matter how hard you get pushed by not only me but your allies too, you still maintain that calm attitude of yours?" I asked.

He hit his rains hard and galloped off into the distance but I was shortly behind in attempt to keep up. We rode through a stretch of trees which quickly became a flock of them and I knew that we were on the frontier at that moment. I began to smile at the look of the nature of this place that I had missed so very much over the weeks of being stuck in a dusty old inn with nothing more to do than get drunk and sit around twiddling my thumbs. I looked ahead of me and I saw the back of Haytham and his cape flying about behind him which made me give a little giggle as my inner self compared him to a masked hero. He slowed his pace so that I caught up with him and we went back to our steady pacing through this endless journey.

"To be angry is to be a victim, my dear. To trigger that emotion you have to try very hard with me," he stated calmly. I looked down at my hands on the rains trying to think what the purpose of me building up my anger so quickly all the time is really for.  
"No need to feel embarrassed Arianna, you are still young and will make mistakes," he said to me so sure of himself.

"I'm 27 Haytham," the moment I uttered those words he looked at me in disbelief with wide eyes and raised eyebrows.  
"You won't be the first one to think I'm joking, but I'm not," he continued to look shocked.

"You barely look 20 Arianna, if I were to have guessed your age I would have said nothing over 21" he stated.

"And what about you 'Sassy smiles'?" he looked at me with a grin that he was trying to hold back.  
"How old are you?" I asked.

"I'm not one for sharing personal details so openly," he teased.

"No fair," I uttered in a child like manner, he gave me a smirk knowing that I was mocking him.

"You will probably find out eventually, just not today," he gave eye contact which I returned and I tried to resist giving a smile as well.  
"We'll have to move faster than this to make good pace, my dear," he said attempting to gallop off again and I followed shortly after.

I knew the next few days with him were going to be eventful ones, I didn't want them to end simply because I knew once our travel was over it was straight back to me being a captive again. At the time I thought it was the only reason that I didn't want this trip to end but I was about to find out very soon that, that wasn't the case, and so was Haytham.

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I am very very late with this chapter and I am so sorry. It has actually been ready for a little over 2 weeks now but my dumbass saved it on my college file which I haven't been able to get access to over the Easter break. Back in motion though considering I am going back tomorrow morning (kill me now -.-) hope you guys liked this chapter.

Leave me a review please :D


	7. Seconds, Minutes, Hours and Days

Ohai, it's the morning after I posted the last chapter, I'm in college with the Monday morning blues and I have nothing to do (total lie, I should be doing work) I want to start the next chapter coz I'm just that dedicated (saddo!) thank you guys for the lovely emails I get saying I have more followers/favourites/reviews. They really do make my day :D

Chapter inspired from The Way by Ariana Grande (the name is a total coincidence)

Enjoy

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We continued our decent through the frontier that seemed to be the same patch of trees after another, I never remembered the frontier being that big, I never scouted the whole thing but I never imagined it to be the size of a city or bigger. Me and Haytham kept talking through most of it which never allowed me to give my surroundings a proper viewing, the conversation that we had were simple and didn't lead to an argument, they were the kind of conversations that you wouldn't remember the next day, I was just enjoying the fact that I can have a conversation with him without blushing in embarrassment or shouting at him in anger.

When we came to a pause I took advantage of it and contemplated our surroundings, I recognised it, but I had trouble remembering what exactly it was that I wanted to remember. The trees seemed to be getting higher and darker in colour, the setting sun was barely lighting the path in front of us and the moving bushes around us were swaying under the influence of the light breeze and the small woodland creatures. I spotted an animal carcass not realising what it was until we came up close to it, that's when I remembered why I recognised this part of the frontier; it was the part where wolves liked to linger.

"It's getting dark, we should find some shelter," I said, breaking the spirits of our small talk and in slight panic of my realisation.

"We will be fine, we must keep going," he said almost ignoring my suggestion.

"Haytham, I know this part of the frontier, if we ride through here at night we will get torn apart," I said getting concerned. He stopped on his horse and looked at me with a warm grin on my face as if I had just given him a compliment.  
"What did I say?" I asked with a chuckle.

"Nothing in particular, whenever I oppose you, you tend to fight back even more," he said with the smile still on his face.

"And you like that?" I asked with a similar smile growing on my lips.

"Not really. I don't… dislike it," he uttered. My smile grew bigger as he continued our descent.

"I think I know of an inn around these parts, we shall go there," he said.

He galloped off once again, he was doing that a lot through our decent, though I liked the wind flowing past me and the feeling of going fast that gave me a rush that I had been craving for weeks I couldn't help but feel that part of the reason he was being like this was because he didn't want to continue our conversation which was upsetting me more than it should have, every part of me hated the fact that it was getting to me the way that it was and I was repressing the question lingering on my mind. _Why do I suddenly care about his opinion on me?_ It was a question that I was refusing to answer.

"So, these riddles that you have been toying with," he started a conversation about my most dreaded subject that I would have wished to discuss with anyone but him.  
"What were they again?" he asked.

"Why has this subject come to mind?" I asked in return. He shot me a glare of sarcasm.

"You know exactly why I want to know more about these riddles of yours, my dear," he stated.

"The riddles are not about you mister Kenway," I stated, I wanted this conversation to end. The reason was unbeknownst to me; however the unpleasant mix of emotions was coming back to me which I assumed was partly the reason behind how tense I was getting under the subject.

"How can you be so sure?" he teased.

"Is this another one of your stupid tests?" I asked, getting agitated.

"Not at all, this is a case of me getting curious of what it might suggest," he was glaring at me with a familiar face that I liked to call his _flirty face_.

"It suggests nothing, end of conversation," I uttered.

"I highly doubt both of those statements, my dear," he muttered under his breath, but I still heard him.

I could suddenly hear small mutters of conversations being held a short distance ahead along with giggles of children. Haytham turned his attention forward to where we were going; I could tell from this that we were close to the inn that we would be staying.

"We are here," he said not turning his head. He stopped very suddenly on his horse and dismounted, I did the same.  
"I need to speak to the innkeeper, find a way to entertain yourself until I get back," he said with a mocking tone. As he walked to the small cottage like inn I turned my attention to the small children that were playing just outside of it, I obviously caught their attention as I was approaching them as the giggles stopped and the staring started.

"Hello," I said to them with a big smile on my face.

"Who are you?" the small boy asked with a voice not yet broken.

"I'm Arianna, nice to meet you," I said continuing to smile; I was giving into my love of children.

"I'm Sarah, she's Julia and he's Connor," the youngest girl said pointing to her friends. When she came to the boy I couldn't help but let out a laugh.

"I have a friend named Connor," I explained my outburst, kneeling down to their level.

"Can you play with us?" Julia asked.

"Of course I can," I stated with my smile turning into a big grin.

The children grabbed my hands and began to recite 'Ring a Ring o' Roses' to which I giggled remembering when I used to do this with my parents when I was a young girl and the memories flooded back as if I was re-living the moment with my parents out on the green that was a short walk from the house that we lived in. they both took my hand looking at me in a loving parenting manner and looking at themselves like nothing else mattered but their love for each other and their love for me and we would sing and play with that particular song as much as I wanted, never saying no when I wanted to do it again and when the time came for us to head back home my father would lift me over his shoulder and carry me back to our house. I giggled at the memory.

"We all fall down!" the children sang in unison and we all sat on the floor. The memory of my parents spoiling me was enough to make me release a tear when reality came back to me.

"Children, do you have any charcoal?" I asked, after quickly wiping the tear from my face. I was feeling a sudden urge to draw.

"Yes! I will go get some!" Connor shouted with enthusiasm.

"Are you going to draw for us?" Sarah asked. I smiled at her question.

"I am," I answered, the children cheered at my response. I pulled out my notebook from where it has been tucked away and found a blank page at the back past all the years of drawings and my skill in drawing that increased gradually. Connor returned with a piece of charcoal with a pointed tip that was perfect for drawing.

"What would you like me to draw?" I asked putting the tip to the page.

"Draw your lover!" I heard Connor shout from behind me.

"I don't have a lover unfortunately," I stated with a sense of self-pity. He sat beside me.

"Sure you do! I just heard him talking about you," he said.

"What did he say?" I asked with curiosity firing though me very suddenly.

"I heard him say to the innkeeper 'my lover and I need a room for the night,'" I started beaming like an idiot at the fact that he referred to me as his lover.

"Draw him!" Julia said. I nodded at her.

I started with his hat, the amount of detail that I remembered could be described as psychic or just stalker, and I even surprised myself. I worked down to his face structure, and I became desperate to draw his eyes and that's exactly what I did without wasting anymore time, I drew his eyes down to the finest detail wanting to get them as perfect as the real thing, His big eyes that give me the chills when they stare into mine and during those moments I have no chance of escaping the eye contact that he wants to obtain. After I was finished with his eyes I think about 10 minutes would have passed and all of the children seemed fascinated with the accurate drawing that I had started. It was a simple start. I had drawn his hat, his facial structure, his eyes, nose and mouth. His eyes were a lot more refined than the rest but it was clear to anyone who knows the man that it was him.

"You are very good at drawing," one of the children stated in fascination.

"That she is," I heard Haytham approach from behind me and I slammed my book shut.  
"Arianna, we need to see that the room is to our liking," he said giving me a wink, I rolled my eyes.

"Goodbye children," I said standing and addressing them.

"Bye bye!" they all said in unison. I saw the corner of Haytham's lip twitch to a half smile.

"I need to talk to you about something," I said to Haytham as soon as we enter the inn.

"Oh?" he said and stopped to raise his eyebrows at me.

"Where is our room?" I asked, he pointed his elbow out as an indication for me to take it into my own arm and lead me forward like a proper English gentlemen should, I took his arm into mine reluctantly the moment that I had my armed hooked on his he lead my forward in a more forceful manner than I anticipated.

"What is it you want to talk about?" he asked almost whispering. I could feel him tense and the fear of the unknown is a feeling clearly not settling well for him. I couldn't help but push him a little further as I loved to be the victor in every possible outcome.

"You shall see when we get there," I stated completely unaware of what it might have suggested. I had my notebook in one hand and his arm in another. We continued without saying another word and he tugged me up another flight of stairs, he was anxious to see what I wanted to talk to him about which is a reason that was obvious to me by the way he was pulling me.

"Our room number is 26" he stated, I was looking through all of the numbers leading up to that number and it seems that Haytham had found the room before I did as I heard a door creak open and he pulled lightly on my arm to guide me in the right direction. I looked around the room that was much better quality than the one that he had provided me with back in New York, the only thing that might have disturbed my being was the presence of a double bed which I wasn't give much time to think about.  
"So?" he asked. I turned to face him as he walked deeper into the room and I could see that his curiosity was at its limit.

"Why did you tell the innkeeper I was your lover?" I asked with my hands on my hips. He chuckled at the stupidity of my question but I doubt that it was a question that was going to settle in my mind if it was left unspoken so I had no regrets.

"You were eavesdropping?" he asked walking toward me.

"I didn't have to, one of the children I was talking to overheard you," I stated, my tone said serious yet my facial expression said playful.

"I couldn't exactly say that you were my prisoner so what other option did I have?" he stated and I was mimicking his sassy smile that he constantly gives me in attempt to get under his skin.

"I thought I was a victim of circumstance," I mocked and he finally gave me the sassy smile that I had been digging at him for.

"You are, my apologies," he bowed, at that last word mocking me just as much as I was mocking him and I narrowed my eyes at him in response.

I walked over to the desk wanting to sit down, I tried to tuck my notebook away again but I completely missed the side of my trousers and dropped the book on the floor, it landed open and several papers has fallen out most of the sketches were face up, I scrambled to pick them all up not wanting mister 'sassy smiles' to see any of them, Haytham was making his way over to help me which is what I was trying to avoid and I tried with my best efforts to stop him but he already managed to get his hands on quite a few of the papers.

"No don't!" I shouted trying to get all the remaining papers from the ground.

"Arianna," he said shocked, with a sketch in his hand. He continued to stare at the sketch and his shocked face slowly turned into a warm grin, he looked at me with the same grin and then showed me the drawing present on the page and my fears were confirmed, he had found the drawing that I had made of him to entertain the playing children. His face had a sassy but questioning smile on it as if to ask me 'why?' I fell silent with embarrassment completely unsure of how to respond to what he had discovered.

"What can I say? Your face is hideous," I stated, wanting to melt into the floor and disappear.

"Exactly why you thought it would be interesting to draw?" he handed me the picture and I tucked it back into my book, not wasting a second.

"Ok, an interesting, hideous face," I stated. We both stood face to face and he smiled in response, I knew that part of him was flattered but part of him was slightly shocked.

"I love it," he stated much to my surprise, he raised a hand and started caressing my cheek which was becoming fiery underneath his gentle touch.  
"You are very talented," he almost whispered with his hand still on my face. I returned his eye contact and I could tell that this was leading to the one place I didn't want it to go.

"We're not doing this," I stated with a smile, he smiled back.

"We're not doing this," he repeated and he pulled his hand away and walked back with a chuckle. I moved to the opposite direction and placed my book on the desk. A sense of relief but also disappointment has washed over me very suddenly.

Part of me was scolding myself for not going ahead with the moment that was being created. I couldn't hear anything from Haytham's side of the room so I turned slightly with my arms folded in attempt to see his reaction and he did the same. For a brief moment we were both staring at each other in an awkward phase to see what the other does next. The eye contact confirmed that we both regretted letting that moment slip away. I turned my attention to his lips that he was subconsciously licking which caused me to bite my bottom one in a reaction to the lust building up to an intolerable bulge that was throbbing in the pit of my stomach. It was when he started to carelessly move toward me with fire and determination burning away obliviously in his eyes that shocked me slightly only in turn I moved toward him with the same feeling and goal locked onto my sightsand wanting to meet his efforts half way. When our bodies met I felt his hot breath meet my face almost immediately which made me shudder under the uncontrollable amount of emotions that were refusing to subside he then placed one hand on the back of my neck and pulled my forehead to meet his I rested my hands on his collar bones and rubbed them slightly not wanting this moment to end as we were both pushed to the brink of insanity from this constant teasing we both leaned in further, slowly and carefully he placed his unbearably soft lips to mine and filled me with an incredible sense of lust as he was pulling my body deeper into his. His moves were slow and perfect; as his lips were making work on mine I did the same by moulding his body onto mine. He pushed me back so that I was leaning slightly and holding onto him to keep me balance. He continued kissing me at the rate that he was going that was driving me crazy. Part of me wanted to push him away and run for the door but another part of me wanted to pull him close and never let him go. He pulled away much to my dismay but quickly and on purposely pushed me backwards so that I landed on the bed; he reacted by climbing ontop of me and continued where he left off. The lust of his past action was causing me to rub his back and chest caressing him in the sense of wanting more. That's when I heard a knock at the door.

"Master Kenway! A word please?" I heard an unfamiliar male speak from outside our door. Haytham pulled away and sighed in either disappointment or frustration. He went for the door after our inconvenient interruption but turned to address me before leaving.

"This isn't over," he stated with his signature sassy smile. I smiled back.

As he left and I heard footsteps lead down the corridor I rushed over to the desk wanting to finish that drawing of him that I started. My lips were tingling under the unexpected amount of attention that they had been given, it was a feeling of pleasure that I had never experienced in this form or on this level intensity. I suddenly felt like nothing else mattered and the only place I wanted to be was here with him, even if a part of me still wanted to get away and I knew exactly why; this can't last forever, he is a Templar and I am an Assassin. We are worlds apart. That being said I was satisfied with how things were then and there... for the time being.

It was then that I decided that from that moment on my kidnapper not only had me captive but also my heart.

_Look at the sun it's just a cloud away. – The positives are just past the negatives._

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So it's now one week after I started this chapter and I think I got just as excited writing this chapter as I hope you all get reading it. Took a lot of thought (being a typical perfectionist) and I knew that it was bound to happen at one point or another so why not now? I've kept you all waiting too long. There are a lot of plot twists coming up. And in the next chapter they will arrive in Boston which shall be eventful. I look forward to writing it. Hope you are all looking forward to reading it. ;)

Leave a review :D


	8. Pinching Nerves

Muhahaha! Howdy there strangers ;) haven't seen you in a while. I'm gonna tell you guys the strangest thing ever! I'm only 17, which means that exam season affects me massively. But I swear to god that it is almost over for me (only one more exam to go!) which is why I have been slacking with this chapter. It has nothing to do with me giving up on this story (that will never happen in a million years!) or writers block, I've just had a lack of free time. Hope this chapter was worth the wait.

Enjoy! :D

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It was the morning after my little encounter with Haytham and I was sitting at the desk coming to terms with all of the pros and cons that came with such a risk that we both took. Already I could tell that he was regretting making the decision that he did; later that night he returned but much later than I was expecting and he was behaving in a manner that seemed like he had forgotten that I had existed. The minute that he had returned I had fallen asleep on the desk. He was intending to sleep in the double bed but made no attempt to make any conversation or even eye contact for that matter and on those rare occasions that eye contact was accidentally given he took it back in an instant.

He was gone again when I woke up that morning from my uncomfortable slumber, all the feelings that had surfaced last night seemed to have disappeared completely as the feelings I was having at that point in time where the complete opposite; I felt empty, meaningless and alone which all came from a lack of contact between us.

I was half expecting something like this to happen, no such romance can occur between a prisoner and a kidnapper; an enforcer and a rebellion… a Templar and an Assassin.

"Is everything alright?" I heard Haytham say behind me while I was in a haze. I turned around to see him standing and looking down at me. I had many questions that were on the tip of my tongue that were dying to be asked but were best left unspoken.

"Shouldn't we be leaving?" I asked standing and avoiding any possible eye contact.

"Arianna, don't," he stated and forced eye contact with me.

"Don't what?" I uttered with a somewhat threatening tone.

"Ignore the fact that something bad happened," he said harshly.

"Bad?" I questioned. Why did he suddenly think that it was something bad? I knew that he certainly didn't think that in the heat of the moment.

"Yes, last night… what happened…" he looked down in shame of what happened which offended me. He shot to attention and looked me straight in the eye.  
"It was a mistake, and not a mistake that will happen again," he finished and walked to the door.

No weapon could have wounded me deeper than those words, a feeling similar to that of a dagger being jabbed into my chest and twisted was occurring, I froze in my spot not wanting to move or to breathe. _So be it_. I turned in my spot and walked over to him opening the door and I pushed past him wanting to get out of that stupid inn. I could feel and hear Haytham hot on my tail and anger that I felt toward him once before was returning with a stronger feel to it, one that made me want to push him out of my life forever, lock the door and swallow the key.

Too many feelings toward this man had arisen just from one stupid kiss, a dangerous encounter that he had realised much sooner than I did but I cared little to none at that moment and the point of my anger was unknown at the time. I was angry with him for calling it a bad encounter and for saying it was a mistake.

"We shall be in Boston by tonight if we move quickly," he stated when he managed to pick up enough pace to walk next to me.

"Oh trust me, I'll be moving quickly," I stated bluntly.

"It will be a long journey if you keep at your childish endeavours," he stated being a blunt as I was.

"I'm sorry that my 'mistake' cost you your pride or even your ability to have a painless conversation but it's hard to hear what you just uttered and not take any of it to offence," I said in attempt to explain my 'childish endeavours'

"I'm sorry that my words offended you, however I am sure that you are aware as much as I am how inappropriate it was," he stood tall and posh which is the side that I didn't like in him.

"Since when do you care about how others might see your actions? You lead an order so it would seem to me that the only opinion that would matter is yours, in conclusion to that statement you are lying to me Haytham," I made up those words as I went along but the impact it had on Haytham made it clear that my words were no less effective than they ever were.

"If no-one finds out then no-one will have an opinion about this," he stated.

"So explain your sudden feeling of regret," I demanded.

"There is nothing to explain Arianna! It wasn't right! And you know that, we shall not speak of this moment again," he raised his voice to me then walked away from me to continue outdoors. I didn't want to further our debate any longer, I didn't get any answers from him at that point but I had no intention of pushing him anymore.

I continued following him to the short walk outside back to our horses, I was refusing to give Haytham any contact whatsoever whether it was verbal contact or simple eye contact, the lack of respect he showed me angered me deep within but I had no desire to express that with him as it would only lead to conflict and more anger so I decided to repress it and let it fade in my core as much as it went against my nature of saying every little thing that pops into my head._What an affect this man is having on me._ I shook the thought immediately from my mind denying that he could be influencing me.

We reached the door that then led us outside and the warm air met my angered face and my love for the outdoors took over my heavy heart and strong opinions. Life always seems so much easier whenever I am outside. My connection with the wilderness always seemed to frighten me at the best and worst of times. It was almost as if I was raised like a native. I sometimes asked Connor what being a native was like whenever we could hold a conversation long enough without trying to tear each other's heads off but he was always very vague with the answers he gave me, eventually I gave up trying to get any answers out of him to feed my curiosity and we went back to our typical fighting.

As we were walking over to our horse which were being tended to by a stables men who was feeding them at the time, I couldn't help but give a wondering eye to look for the children that I had met when we first arrived, just after one encounter I had grown attached to them and wanted to bid them farewell. As my luck would have it they were no-where in sight and time did not afford me the luxury of finding them which lowered my mood even further.

Haytham had dismissed the man feeding our rented horses and turned to me to attempt to assist me in climbing onto the saddle of mine, I was sure that this was the gentleman layer of him peering out so I didn't not oppose at first, it was when he was helping me up with one hand on my leg and the other finding my lower back that brought a feeling in my chest that was awkward and unpleasant.

"Okay! I have it!" I shouted, I hadn't intended this line to sound so harsh but it came across harsh with a slight tint of bitterness added that made me feel worse than the feeling I was trying to cancel out.

"Sorry, thank you," I muttered quickly. He nodded at me but with no added smile which was unlike him.

We set off on our continued journey and remained in the cold silence that was aching in many ways, ways that I did not understand. I did not know if this silence was causing me pain because the silence around us was suffocating me or because it was giving me the impression that he didn't want to talk to me. This man was growing on me, and I didn't like it.

"Is this bitter silence really necessary?" I asked, I heard him chuckle slightly and my spirits were risen faintly.

"I thought our argument might have set the bar for an awkward conversation every time I might have tried" he repeated my words from previously before.

"Don't mock me," I uttered jokingly.

"I am merely trying to lighten the mood, my dear," I smiled at my nickname that he uttered again, I was glowing inside to the fact that we can still hold a conversation such as this one, I would have missed something like this too much to have had him give me awkward silence for the rest of my time with him.

"Well you have succeeded," I smiled. He rode beside me briefly before staring at me for longer than I was able to bare comfortably, the moment I noticed I began squirming uncomfortably in my saddle.  
"What are you staring at?" I asked.

"You have a lovely smile," he said softly, causing me to blush.

"Thank you?" I replied in the form of a question.

"Pardon?" he asked.

"Forgive me, that didn't sound like something that you of all people would have said," I thought out loud.

"I have many sides to my personality, as do you and many people that we know; certain things bring them out as I am sure you are aware," he explained causing me to smirk in response.

"And what side was this?" I asked through a smile.

"I'm not sure… perhaps my flirting side," he sounded like he was joking.

"Right, sure," I said sarcastically and heard another chuckle from his end.

"I have seen your flirting side on many occasions, Arianna," he gave me eye contact.

"Hah! Name one time!" I would not consider myself a flirt.

"Alright, just now, when you asked me what side of me was showing, that's flirting," he said in attempt to work his way under my skin.

"I do not flirt," I defended, I turned to look at him to see he raised his eyebrows at me.  
"I don't!" I repeated.

"I believe you," he said half-seriously.

"that is so typical of you, as soon as I am nice to you, you take it as flirting," I started a debate with him which was rather common when it came to one of our conversations however it rarely led to an argument, it was usually a friendly debate that we would have. The debate part is to be expected considering we are on completely opposite sides of a war but the friendly part often confused me. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't bring myself to have any hatred toward this man when we were having a debate or chatting about our differences which made little to no sense to me at the time.

"I think I know the difference between flirting and being nice, Arianna," he defended.

"Name one time that I have been nice that you wouldn't classify as flirting," I demanded. Our eye contact was at its minimum I put this down to us riding while we were talking but I didn't think much more of it.

"You were entertaining those children at the inn shortly after we arrived. That was nice," he said almost straight away which made me think about how he would usually think during a heated debate.

"Would you have thought the same thing if it were a grown man instead of children?" I asked.

"Probably," he answered hesitantly.

"Indeed" I replied sarcastically. I heard him scoff which made me snigger with a sense of victory.

I galloped off to the distance in front of us shortly after wanting my inner love for the outdoors to have its way with me. I heard Haytham call my name getting increasingly annoyed every time he repeated but I did not stop, I may have been his prisoner but he had loosen his grip on me over the weeks that I had been with him enough for me to have the courage to disobey once in a while. Thats when it hit me.

'_Oh my god. I'm in the frontier, I know where I am. I can escape,'_ I thought to myself. In that instant all of my escape plans were rushing through my head like a picture show at top speed running through my conscious mind. I was still galloping and had every instinct in my body to keep going and run and go as fast as I possibly could away from the clutches of my enemy. With everything running through my head I was mentally deciding whether it was a good idea. If he caught me he would have started treating me like a prisoner instead of a guest; but if I escaped I could have alerted the other assassins that I am okay and Haytham's horrible plan to be rid of the assassin's would come to a halt.

Shortly after agreeing to follow my instincts and to be rid of this life as a prisoner I suddenly became aware of where I was going and the horse I had been riding had suddenly lost its mind and start whining and jumping around like crazy. That's when I saw that for the past few minutes had been riding dangerously close to the edge of a cliff, I tugged on the rains to pull my horse aside. It did as it commanded however as a reaction it quickly launched me from its back and left me helplessly flying toward the edge of this cliff.

"Arianna!" I heard Haytham shout. I turned my head to see him watching me fly toward certain death and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it, everything seemed to be going ten times slower than reality I was watching everything around me as I was gripping and grasping thin air in many desperate attempts to save my own life but no matter what I did the outcome was becoming every bit as clear as Haytham could see it with his horror stuck face watching me.

I hit the ground inches away from the edge and slid straight off the side. My view of the bottom of this pit became clear, there were rocks worn by years of water falls pointing directly up at me, if I were to fall I would be squered. The moment my hands reached the side of the cliff I gripped the harsh rocks pointing out as hard as a person fearing for their life could possibly do.

"No!" I heard Haytham scream from the top of his voice in obvious fear that I had been killed.

I heard the ground shuffle from where he had been running over to see and I was gripping onto the rocks for dear life.

"Arianna! Don't let go!" I heard him shout as he peered his head down to see me a short distance below the surface.

"Why on earth would I let go?" I shouted back.

"Grab my hand, it will be alright," I heard him say with a rather calm tone. I looked up to his hand above me which would require me to rely on one hand for a few seconds.

"I can't, I'll fall," I shouted in a blind panic.

"Just lift one hand, you will be okay, I won't let anything happen to you," he continued with his calm tone. I looked up again and lifted one hand to grab his as quickly as I possibly could, before I knew it he was pulling on my arm with an almighty strength, my shoes were slipping and sliding to get a grip on the rough yet smooth rocks but it didn't seem to matter, within about 10 seconds or less I was on the surface. The instant that I could get my feet a good grip on the floor I ran as fast as I could away from the edge that almost cost me my life.

Haytham jumped to his feet and turned to see me panting and scared to death. He ran toward me and wrapped his arms around me and held me tight and let out a gasp of relief as he did so.

"It's alright now," he said through his pants. I pushed him away from me.

"No, it's not!" I shouted much to his surprise.

"None of this makes any sense! You saved me from getting raped by several redcoats, then you saved me from several psychopaths in New York and you are taking me to safety in Boston and now you save my life again from falling from a cliff! You could have been killed yourself if you slipped! You risked your own life to save mine. Why would you do that for me?" I asked very emotionally with tears welling up in my eyes.

He hesitated to answer and I could see that he was finding it difficult to draw up an answer.

"At first it was to protect my plan to eliminate your band of assassins" he said, still shaken by the event that had occurred.

"And now?" I asked.

"I... care about you too dearly to let anything terrible happen to you," my mouth opened partially at his words  
"I will not see you hurt in any shape or form, I will not allow it," I let a smile curl onto my lips as he said those words.

"You saved my life," I squeaked realising what risk he had taken for me.

"It was nothing," his modesty wouldn't allow him any honour.

"Not to me," I smiled. He cleared his throat and trailed off to find my startled horse.

"Come on, we need to keep moving if we are to reach Boston by tonight," he stated as if nothing happened.

"But-"

"We shall continue this conversation later when an opportunity presents itself, as for now, both of us need to calm down from the event that has just occurred," he explained.

"As you wish mister Kenway," I curtsied moderately; he smirked at me in response before I followed him.

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I know that I am so so so late with this chapter but the ball is now rolling once more so please forgive me :3 exam season is almost over so I shall be continuing with my weekly updates from this point on. Thank you for being patient with me. Couldn't ask for better followers :D


	9. Controlled Chaos

Hey guys, I feel dead. Not even exaggerating. I've caught something, I think it's a head cold but I'm not a doctor so I don't know. I hate being sick, it brings me to a standstill. But I'm bed ridden and bored so let's attempt to write this... okay... here goes.

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We arrived in Boston later that night, it was far past the time I am usually asleep so my mood had taken a turn for the worse and it was the kind of foul mood that everyone notices except you, so there is little to nothing that could have been done about it. Haytham briefly introduced me to several of his allies who were confused to say the least as to why he was introducing his 'prisoner' to his friends. Their first impression left a sour taste in their mouths about me which I hadn't intended but it mattered little as their opinions meant less than nothing to me. The only ally that I have taken any liking to is Thomas Hickey simply because we have a similar attitude toward life in general but now that he wasn't here I felt like a prisoner once again so my awkward ignorance of everything had returned and as I have gotten to know Haytham I know that ignorance is one of the many things that he can't stand.

Ever since I had that dream with the phantom I have become less of a people pleaser so I didn't try to change my attitude around him as much as I did, during moments that I knew my behaviour would get under his skin it was obvious that something was bothering him but he was trying to hide it. It gave me pleasure to cause him distress in a loving tormenting sort of way.

The inn that we were staying at had a similar feel to it compared to New York except it was smaller, the smell wasn't quite as putrid and the staff were a little more desperate. The minute I walked through the door they were trying to get me to buy all sorts of things, when the woman who greeted us recognised Haytham and started flirting I instantly decided that I hated her but even though it was an unholy hour of the night he still responded to her flirting knowing that it was irritate me to some degree. The fact that he likes to make me jealous or attempt to make me jealous shows that he likes to be the one that is in control which made me draw up many conclusions of my own.

I spent that morning in the room that I had been given trying to work out the last riddle of my dream.

"_It's dark in the day I say now don't complain."_

"_Look up at the sun it's just a cloud away." – The positives are just past the negatives._

"_You're so afraid to cry but your heart's been feelings dry." – You want to be loved but you are afraid of being hurt._

The more I experience the closer I was getting to working out the riddles,though I couldn't help but notice that I was working them out backwards rather than forwards which made me think that it meant something; like something from my past was coming to my future. I kept debating with myself that it was just a coincidence but that's exactly what I said about the riddles in the first place but they seem to be making sense and slotting into place the more I try to unravel them.

I stared at the page with a blank stare and empty thoughts, completely disregarding the escape notes that I had been making for who knows how long. Escaping didn't occur to me as an option since I was nearly killed by my own stupidity the day before. It felt like karma, I tried to escape so I almost got killed.

"Is everything alright?" I heard Haytham's voice and I turned to see him leaning against my open bedroom door.

"Can I be alone?" I asked, rather impolitely.

"No," he responded instantly.

"Why not?" I asked, with a similar impolite tone.

"I said when we left New York that you wouldn't be able to ignore me," he answered.

"I'm not ignoring you, I enjoy my own company from time to time," I explained. He walked toward me with an expressionless face which left his future actions unpredictable which gave me an unnerving feeling.

"How are you spending your time 'in your own company' my dear?" he asked.

"If you must know, I am trying to piece together those riddles that you seem so interested in. Now would you please be a gentlemen and leave me be?" I asked with a sense of self-pity.

"No such luck. Read them to me," he demanded with a smirk. I paused briefly to give him an awkward stare which didn't seem to faze him.

"It's dark in the day I say now don't complain," I read out the one riddle that didn't seem to have a relevant meaning.

"What is the meaning?" he asked.

"That is the only one I can't seem to get my head around," I confessed.

"How did you de-code the others?" I stood from lying on my bed and I walked over to the table with a candle and several other trinkets I didn't find myself using very often and I tossed my book onto a free space.

"They seem to unravel themselves after I have certain events in my life. After these 'events' it all seems clear," this fact was becoming a little more than a coincidence to me but it was doubtful that Haytham would have felt the same way.

"So stop trying to force it and just wait for the right moment to appear," I took his words into consideration. I knew that my curiosity wouldn't let me have a decent night's sleep until I had a basic clue as to what the riddle meant.  
"Shall we talk about yesterday," I looked up from my daze and gave him an uncomfortable look.  
"It will help you come to terms with the fright that you had," he gave a reason but I still found it unnecessary.

"Mister Kenway," I addressed, he looked at me with his gentlemen like features showing.  
"I have been an assassin since I was 6 years old, this is not my first near death experience," I felt like I was stating the obvious.

"I am aware, but I am also aware that the fright doesn't dull no matter how many times you might have experienced it, so let me help you," he stated. I walked toward my bed again and sat down and Haytham joined me.

"Can you please stop acting like my father and just act like my friend?" I asked.

"I don't think that the word 'friend' is the correct label for me, Arianna," he said through a chuckle.

"Then what is?" I turned to give him eye contact. He raised an eyebrow at me as well as giving me that sassy smile that I had grown to love.  
"No," I said bluntly, causing him to laugh.

"Putting a label on the relationship we have isn't possible in my eyes," he stated.

"So we have a relationship now do we?" I mocked while standing and walking toward the door.

"That is not what I meant," he uttered.

"So what did you mean?" I turned to see him standing and striding toward me confidently.

He reached his right hand out and placed it behind my neck; he quickly and surely brought himself forward to me to meet my lips with his. He brought his other hand and wrapped it around my waist; his moves were bold and confident in every way which confirmed my theories on his act of control. I acted my part by having both of my arms tied around his neck and allowing him to control me without any objections for once. This kiss seemed to have more heat than our first; I could tell that he certainly wouldn't take this one as a mistake from the amount of sparks flying around our heads. Every nerve in my body was on red alert as I felt his touch and presence from every angle; it was a moment that I could have lived in for life. I traced my fingertips around his neck and I felt him shudder under my gentle touch, his grip on me became an embrace as I was getting more daring with my actions.

"Does this answer your question?" he spoke quietly on my neck.

"Not in the slightest," I whispered in his ear. He laughed and pulled back from our embrace which disappointed me. He walked over to the door looking as if he was going to leave but turned to address me.

"I came in here for a reason," he stated.

"And that would be?" I asked.

"A close ally and friend of mine has just returned from an important mission so he wasn't here to greet us when we arrived last night. I would like for you to meet him," he almost asked. I sighed.

"Do I have to?" I asked. He gave me a threatening but playful stare.  
"Fine," I knew exactly what this person was going to be like. All of the templars I have been introduced to seem to be a different face but the same personality over and over again. Arrogant, egocentric, reductionist and pompous.

"Excellent, he is waiting downstairs for us," he said before leading the way. I dragged myself after him wanting to get what I was hoping to be the last introduction I ever have over with.

There were a lot more drunkards in this inn than any other inn that I have seen. People were drinking in any place they could find. From what I gather about the desperate innkeepers that run this wood rotten place they will take any customers that they can get which explains a lot if I'm honest. Some of the people that asked us for spare change even made Haytham feel uncomfortable and I know that he is not a man to be influenced quite so easily. I used my common sense from that moment on and didn't make any contact with these hooligans since.

"Jonathan!" Haytham shouted across the inn to get a man's attention. I didn't take any notice to who was walking over to answer Haytham's calls as I wasn't the slightest bit interested. I was planning to return to my room and lock myself in there for a few more days after this introduction. I was losing the will to carry on; the templars were sucking the life out of me. All of my joys like sitting on the rooftop and drawing the day away or going for a morning run had been taken away from me. I didn't know how long I could go on before my will to keep my sanity at bay was on the edge.  
"Arianna, I would like you to meet Mister Jonathan Pitcairn," Haytham tried to capture my attention, and that name definitely caught my attention. That last name, the first could belong to any fool but why that last name? Why did that last name have to haunt me again?

I stared up at the man who I had supposedly never met with a horror stuck face at what I was seeing, everything seemed to be flashing around my head like and image from an old dream. All of the lost pieces to a puzzle that has been unfinished for years were coming together. The emotions and chaos that I had felt once before was running through my head and I could feel it in every inch of my body.

"Nice to meet you," this familiar man said to me while raising his hand for a hand shake.

"Touch me and I swear I will kill you!" those harsh words strung themselves together without any effort from my conscious mind. Haytham looked at me, words didn't mean a thing but his look didn't need words; he was very confused and very shocked. This familiar stranger looked at me in an awkward way like he had said something to offend me.

"Arianna is there a problem?" Haytham asked calmly.

"All those years of endless kindness and opportunities to prove my self-worth meant little to nothing. I can see that now, all I ever wanted was to be the best that I could be, so naive as to ever think that even you would stoop this low in your life, after everything that I was told and taught all of those lies that I was force fed just so that my thoughts... my STUPID, MEANINGLESS, CLUELESS thoughts wouldn't have ever even considered that something like this would have ever become a reality," my words increased in volume which attracted a lot of attention. Words that only those with the memory and experience would understand otherwise it is just meaningless ramble. A silence lingered through the inn.

"Who are you?" The familiar stranger asked me with a tone that suggested he thought I was out of my mind.

"You never even gave one thought. Not one thought that I would still be here!" I shouted in his face.

"Who are you?" he asked louder.

"Forgotten past, repressed memories and all those who dared remember are dead. You may stand there tall and proud like a man but your nothing but a boy!" I continued.

"Oh my god," the man's face had turned pale white.

"What on earth is going on here?" Haytham asked.

"Saoirsena?" The man asked with a shaky voice.

"...Hello father," I uttered slowly, I managed to get gasps from everyone who listened.

* * *

Ooohhhh SHNAP! Plot twist FTW! How do you like them apples? I had this plot twist in mind for a while and I wanted everyone to be surprised. I didn't even tell my co-writer about how this was going to go down. I did the last couple of chapters independently to build up to this. BOO to the YA! Feeling elated ;)

Leave a review please :D


	10. Spark of Insanity

Right then guys, plot twist continued :L I know this was quite a shock for some of you as I have seen in the reviews ;) so let's see where this takes us.

Chapter inspired from la la la by Naughty Boy ft Sam Smith

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"Father?" Haytham squeaked. I was ignoring everything he was doing at this point and I was mentally planning the death of my father; to put him in the ground where he should have been for the past 20 years.

"I- I thought you were-" my father murmured.

"You thought I was dead! But you would like that wouldn't you? When things grow difficult you don't stand your ground. Instead you have your family killed!" I interrupted.

"Saoirsena, please you have to understand the reason behind this," I turned my head to avoid his given eye contact; I was disgusted at the fact that he can even dare to give any sort of contact with me.

"What valid and excusable reason could you possibly have for killing my mother attempting to kill me and then turning to the Templars?" I asked. I was weary of his every breath move and word from that point on as I instantly decided that even if he wasn't dead he was dead to me.

"I never turned to the Templars," he stated.  
"I was always a Templar, and you were to be too," those words are something that nightmares are made of, my eye widened and my face went pale, the people that I couldn't stand and the people I have blamed for the death of my parents for years are the people I was intended to mould.

"I'm- I was intended to be a Templar?" I squeaked with disbelief.

"Yes, that was the purpose behind training you at such an early age," he stated nervously. I stared at the floor with disbelief with no idea how to respond to what he was telling me.

"You… you always went on and on about doing the right thing, about taking responsibility and constantly talking all the time about how everything would soon fall into place," my emotions were becoming obvious to my peers.

"Please," he reached out to touch my arm in reassuring way.

"Don't touch me," I backed away and stated in a hostile manner which clearly put him on edge.  
"So- how can I do this? How WOULD I have done this? This whole thing has been a lie right from the start," I said, feeling the emotions in my throat causing my voice to break off mid-sentence.

"No, you were young, you misunderstood-" I cut him off

"No! I am sick to death of hearing about all who benefit from this sick creed. The Templar order is just a joke, it's just one big lie after another and the biggest lie of all has been me!" I said trying to choke down the tears.

"No, you are not a lie. You meant everything to me-"

"I don't want to hear it because I don't care!" I shouted, trying to run upstairs.

"Arianna, please, there has to be some logical explanation behind this," Haytham shouted after me.

"Why does everything need to have a logical explanation in your eyes Haytham?" I shouted. My anger would shoot out to all those who passed by it seemed. It was excusable considering the circumstances.

"Running away won't solve this problem," my father stated.

"It didn't seem to stop you, did it?" I shouted.  
"20 years ago you had an order to have me and my mother killed and then you took off to America! You washed your hands of us completely and you continued the same way in life even if that fact is burning away in the back of your mind. Well I'm here, alive and well. Prepare to meet your maker!" I said before finally escaping the suffocating conversation that made me question my own existence.

I ran toward my room with tears forcing themselves from my eyes, no amount of effort could have stopped them. I ran into my room, there was nothing I wanted more than to be alone in that moment of time and sink lower than the hole that I had already put myself in, I felt unwanted and unloved, even more so than I already did. I slammed the door behind me and listened to the never ending echo of the bang. All of my emotions bubbled up and I let them free by swiping my desk clean with a terrible racket as an output. I pushed the table against the door to stop anyone from coming in. I needed to be alone, the fact that my father was alive wasn't sinking in and I didn't want it to, the reality of such terrible findings was killing me slowly. I found out that I was raised in the ways of my enemy instead of the assassin's; I couldn't imagine what life would be like if I were a Templar, I refused to take any of it in and I laid on the floor with the rummage of various items I pushed off my desk and let the sadness and confusion pour out of me without holding back.

I pushed through the rummage to find my notebook, once I found it I poured the heaps of pages out to scatter all over the floor, years of memories shattered before my eyes and I tryed to think back to how many other lies that he could have told me. I searched through the pages to look at the drawings that I had done when my mother was still alive; I shed many tears at the thought that I trusted the man who ripped all of my memories to bits. I sat there in the mess I had made, I looked at my work with an inner sense of pride, _my anger caused this_ I thought while looking at the destruction and it caused me pain to stare for too long.

"Arianna, let me in please," I heard Haytham's voice. I gave no reply, only the bitter silence.  
"This needs to be solved," he stated knocking on the door.

"Enough is enough" I muttered. I pushed the table aside to open the door. I turned to the rummage and grabbed the sharpest object I could get my hands on. It seemed as though Haytham had anticipated this and ran in not a second too soon and disarmed me before using his superior strength to restrict me.  
"Let me go!" I screamed.

"You need to calm down before you do something that you will regret," he said.

"It wouldn't make any difference to me; I assumed he was dead for almost 20 years, I'm going to make an honest man out of him!" I shouted.

"I understand that you are upset Arianna, it was quite a shock to all of us, but a lot of people in your position would love to have a second chance with their father and you can, think about it," he said trying to turn my decision around.

"I came to America to track down my parent's killer and in a strange twist of events, I have," I stated angrily trying to push him away from me.

"When you are feeling this way just think that there will always be someone in a worse position, you can't complain about not having a second chance," I stopped struggling at his words that rang in my ears; he loosened his grip on me waiting for an answer. The words he said struck something inside of me, something about the way he said them made me stop to think.

"That's it!" I shouted. I ran toward the rummage to pick up the remains of my notebook.  
"That's the meaning to that riddle!" I said scribbling it in with a piece of broken charcoal.

"At a time like this, that is your biggest concern?" he asked.

"I told you Haytham, they mean something, every time something screwed up like this happens I solve another one, and it means something!" I explained my insanity.

"So you've solved them all, now what?" he asked. I tried to think of an answer but I didn't know.

"There has to be a reason behind why they all interconnect with my life," I muttered.

"It's just a coincidence, you are deluding yourself," he stated very rigidly. I gave him a sassy look through my eyelashes trying to get a point across, sometimes I really think he needs to learn to practice what he preaches or at least think before opening his mouth, it is getting rather difficult to resist calling his bluff or commenting on how hypocritical he can be. He scoffed.  
"Okay, I was asking for that," he said, I laughed.

"I just need some time to think about all of this," I almost asked him to leave.

"Good, while you are tinkering with that, you can clean up this mess that you have made," he said with an annoyed tone.  
"Take responsibility for your anger for once," he said half seriously. I sniggered in response.

"You mean like my father?" I asked sarcastically. He sighed.

"He didn't seem very angry, only confused and shocked, like me," he said, I smiled at him.

"You took it a lot better than I thought you would, I thought you would have hit the roof," I said.

"What was that name he kept calling you?" he asked, I smiled at the fact that he didn't even try to pronounce it, not a lot of people do.

"Saoirsena. That's my real name," I said and he gave me a confused look once again.

"So why did you say that your name is Arianna?" he asked with slight frustration hidden in his tone.

"It is, I have gone by the name Arianna since I was about 13, not a lot of people can pronounce my real name, it was getting on my nerves, so I changed my name," I explained. He raised an eyebrow at me.

"The more I know about you, the more I wish I don't," he smiled at me. I giggled in hope that he was joking.

"Now I know that's not true," I laughed. He winked in response.

"You've been crying," he said, those words seemed to give me a green light to continue, a silent tear rolled down my cheek as I continued to stare at him in wonder with how he would react. Haytham came close to me and held me tight in a sense that he was my shoulder to cry on. He kissed me on top of my head to give me slight comfort in my misery.

"There's no need to show sympathy, I'm sure that I can handle this by myself," I tried to be strong.

"It's not sympathy Arianna, it's empathy. I'm sure that you could handle this on your own but I don't want you to," he said.

"What do you mean it's empathy?" I asked confused. I felt like I had crossed a line by asking that question by the way he looked at his hands for a while as if he was stinging words together for him to explain.

"My father was an assassin," he stated very quickly, like ripping a bandage from a wound. I was surprised but there is only so much shock I can give when I had only just found out my father was still alive, but still I couldn't believe how similar our situations were.

"Oh my word, was it a similar situation to mine?" I asked feeling guilty for underestimating him.

"In a way," he said giving me eye contact. He turned to sit on my bed by this I could tell that he had a story to tell. He gave me a gesture for me to join him.  
"he was killed by a man when I was young, that man then raised me as his own in the ways of a Templar, so that is what I became. It is a long and complicated story that I haven't even completely taken in myself, I'm sure I will feel comfortable revealing it one day, just not today," he said smiling at me, I gave him a comforting smile as I knew exactly what he meant and I wasn't going to ask him about anything he wasn't comfortable with. That being said, I had so many questions, such as: 'if you knew your whole background was a lie then why did you continue to be a Templar?'  
"I just wanted you to know that I know exactly what you are feeling right now, maybe you can feel some comfort in that," he became nervous in getting his words out.

"I do, oddly enough," I smiled. He took my hand from my knee and held it in his own; the fact that they fit each other so well made me warm inside, it was the first time I haven't felt an inner bitter feeling which was a mix of loneliness and rejection. This simple but sweet gesture made me forget all of my anger.

"You and I are more alike than either of us would like to imagine," he smiled warmly at me.

"Maybe we are," I said calmly with a big grin on my face. A thought came to mind that made me take my hand back forcefully and consider my escape plans again.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I just thought that… maybe… the fact that I'm your ally's daughter would change a few things," I said holding onto a small shred of hope I had allowed myself to keep. He took my hand again and made it clear that I wasn't going to get it back and gave me forced eye contact.

"It is going to take a lot more than that to change what I think about you," he stated. I blushed at his words.

"And what do you think of me?" I asked. It was his turn to blush. He leaned in and gave me the gentlest peck he could give. It was small but sweet and made me tingle all over which was a feeling I wished would never fade no matter how many times he kissed me.

"I think you are the most interesting person I've ever met in my life," he said against my lips.

"I've met your friends, that isn't much of a challenge," I replied. He pulled away and began laughing.

"You can never take a compliment can you?" he asked with a smile.

"That wasn't really a compliment," I teased him, I loved grinding his gears. He often laughed when I tried which added to the entertainment.

"Alright then, shall I bite my tongue next time?" he teased back. The smiled dropped off my face and he instantly chuckled.  
"Asked and answered," he mocked. I rolled my eyes at him.  
"It's getting rather late, I suppose we will have to address this problem in the morning," he got up to leave but I didn't want him to. Even if it was just a few extra minutes, the desire to be alone was long gone, instead I wanted to be held close and to be made aware that I am wanted or loved even a little bit.

"Wait!" I grabbed him to stop him.  
"Will you stay?" I asked through a smile. He smiled at me in response.

"I think it would look rather unprofessional," he excused.

"So don't tell anyone," I raised an eyebrow. He responded with his sassy smile.

"Alright," he agreed. I was hoping that the aftermath from this entire day would be over and done with, I could only hope that it would not get any worse as the week went on, I've had enough surprises during my stay with the Templars to last me a life time. I've taken a lot of blows to the head and to the heart and I wasn't sure if I could take anymore otherwise I could end up broken.

* * *

Alright guys, so this chapter was basically just the aftermath of the last chapter I didn't really have a plan for it so I just went along with whatever popped into my head which is why it might be considered poorly written but I do have a plan for the next chapter which will either annoy you or excite you (oops, I have possibly said too much :3) thank you for the on-going support to my crazy yet entertaining ideas. Can't tell you how much I love and appreciate hearing from you guys :D

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	11. A Cursed Blessing

Hello there team Haythanna, (I am totally calling you guys that from this point on XD) it has been such a crazy summer so far I have to tell you! I have a summer job where they pay me to do exactly this! It's great! I'm being serious, I write a chapter and they review it and pay me for my work! I'm getting paid to do something that I love and enjoy so I couldn't be happier :D

As I am aware, a lot of you were confused or annoyed at the last chapter. Honestly the last chapter was just to fill the gap as I had a bit of writer's block however a lot of you were confused as to why Arianna kept her father alive. I could give you a whole speech on how this is my decision but just to make it simple: I have plans for John Pitcairn in the future and the fact that I would have to make Arianna lash out and kill her father would completely defeat the point of having her gain some control over her anger. So there you have it.

I've been watching the Wimbledon for the past few weeks and just because I'm from Great Britain my English pride obligates me to do this: CUMON ANDY MURRAY! :D just in case that wasn't obvious enough: Britain won XD

As I said, this chapter might annoy some of you because the topic of the chapter is becoming a sub-plot to the story.

* * *

My consciousness is stirring within begging me to get up but I lack the will to do so. I felt a strange amount of pressure in my head like I had just been kicked in the head by a horse. I gave in and opened my eyes to find something I was not expecting, it surprised confused and horrified me all at once. I was at my old home, in England. Everything was in order just as I remember it. I was lying in the bed I had when I was small.

I could smell the seasoned flowers outside my window that I used to love to wake up to on a Saturday morning, these senses took me away to a place where nothing needed worrying about, it was a time where I didn't feel any need to care about anything. I tried to enjoy this happy time but when I did all I felt was regret. Regret of taking everything I had for granted, you never know what you have love or need until it is all taken from you. It leaves you with so many pieces to pick up and so many questions that are left unanswered.

This scene reminded me of how I had to go from being dependent to independent overnight in fear that the horrible people who killed my parents would also come for me too. I didn't think of the consequences it might have had on my future, I did what my father did. I turned my back and ran but unlike him I kept running and running. I ran away for years until I stumbled upon the homestead, and the kind people that were willing to call me their friend.

"High dive into frozen waves where the past comes back to life," I heard a phantom sing. I jumped at the muddled words and tried my best to find the source of this voice, but like last time there was no use.

"No! Not this again! I refuse it!" I shouted. I did not leave through the door in fear that I would run into another memory that will tear another vital piece from me. I pushed on the window to swing it open and I hopped out silently thanking the heavens that my room was on the bottom floor.

I began to run away as fast as my legs could carry me which brought back a familiar but unwelcome feeling of running away from my home once more than before. It didn't seem to be taking me anywhere, I ran fast but the ground wasn't moving.

"Keep clenching your ticket to the only way out as he disappears in a puff of smoke," the phantom continued as I gave in to my tired muscles and dropped in my place.

"I have to drown you out before I lose my mind," I grumbled through my teeth. I covered my ears with all the will and might I summoned trying to block out the scrambled words.

I gained a very strong and sudden feeling of dizziness as I tried to stand up on my now unstable and clearly exhausted legs, I was aware that I was dreaming as soon as I heard the phantoms tangled preaches as if my subconscious was lecturing me every time I happened to be content with my feelings. If my exterior surroundings weren't reminding me of my past and my feelings than it would be haunting me in my sleep or in my daydreams, it was as if something from my past had been left undiscovered and it has been squeezing me tighter and tighter throughout my life until it had me praying for the sweet relief of death.

"I feel like the path is clearing but the more it does the more I feel empty and meaningless," I mumbled involuntarily, the logic and reasoning of my mind was not working or rather it seemed to be ignoring my commands to put an end to this madness.

"Daddy! Wait!" I heard the high pitch tone of this tiny child behind me crying for the father's attention.

I dreaded to think what memory would slap me across the face if I gave into my instincts and turned in my place.

"Come my child, the daylight beckons at us," I heard a familiar male voice that stabbed me in the chest until all I felt was numb. I stupidly followed my instincts and turned hesitantly to see the source of these voices and confirmed my suspicions.

I looked at the family with their daughter and I instantly recognised everyone one of them. The one that shocked me most of all was my mother standing there looking at the child version of myself with a grin of great happiness on her face. I dropped on my knees again as if gravity had just become 10 times stronger, my knees buckled under the intense amount of emotions twisting up my insides from seeing the family that I was once a part of, I wanted to cry but no tears were forming. Every second was becoming an hour and I could hear the sound drifting away from me, the memory of seeing the happiness that I once lived was being repressed as I was living it. My childhood had become a perverted memory that I tried with every ounce of will and strength that I had left in me to forget and try to live in the present but something was keeping me from forgetting and I needed to find out what kept dragging my thoughts back to the past.

I turned my attention to my mother who was standing looking coy at the affection that my father was handing to me. The sight and sound of my mother was tugging and knotting my heart strings which triggered all sorts of feeling inside of me that were near impossible to indentify or explain but it was undoubtedly unpleasant.

Her giggle brought back the happy feelings that I forgot that I had with my family. The meaning of the word family had become a blurred definition in the years to come as I spent most of my days hopping from one inn to another and mooching for a place to stay in the homestead when it suited me most. I assumed that it was mostly out of pity as no-one understood what pain I was going through or even bothered to care enough to ask me how I was feeling or offer their support. I found help and guidance in the most unlikely of places. I never would have expected that Haytham; the man I was sworn to hate and to kill would be the one that could guide me through all of this needless depression and anger I have been feeling toward a fixed point that was driven by revenge. It was a silly and pointless goal to set myself that I didn't realise until I started seeing life from a different perspective but everything has a silver lining in the end.

"When you spit your venom the poison still lingers," I could still hear the words of this unsightly person. The voices were clearly internal as no amount of coverage would have drowned these voices out. The messages that they kept stamping on my mind brought me a lot of grief and insanity but at the same time brought me some clarity. A sudden realisation of something that I had been blind to even if it was staring me straight in the face was always uncovered every time I de-coded these ciphered words. Haytham might see this as a coincidence or that I'm deluding myself but if he were living in such terrible flash backs and dreams such as the ones that I am having he would wonder why also.

Like the last time I had a dream such as this the world began to deteriorate but not as much as last time, on this occasion my vision was becoming impaired similar to the time that I was kidnapped. Everything in the distance went from structures to shapes to colours to blurs before I felt incredibly tired and run down that I needed to close my eyes, in the moment the feeling that I was floating in a pit of pitch black nothingness was over coming me for a few brief seconds as I was slipping from my dreaming state.

I opened my eyes to the poorly lit room that I had fell asleep in with a half dressed Haytham lying next to me. As soon as I was sure that the state I was in was not one that would be in a dream I sat up with such a speed that knocked the air from my lungs leaving me gasping. The heavy breathing continued that made it sound like I had just been given the fright of my life, the fear of having another dream or more riddles that connect with my life had knocked me sick, I didn't know how much more emotional rides that I could take, they were beginning to feel like blows to the head; there are only so many that I can take before I black out.

"Arianna, what's wrong?" Haytham asked after my gasps had woken him from his slumber. He sat up and exposed his tanned and muscular torso which I almost ignored through everything racing through my mind.

"My blessing is a curse, my blessing is a curse," I mumbled to myself in a blind daze of confusion.

"Blessing? Curse? What are you talking about?" Haytham sounded like he was joining me in my panicking; he placed his hands on my shoulder trying to get me to get a grip on my senses.

"I keep dreaming riddles. So many riddles," I buried my head in his bare shoulder wanting to feel comfort from him. He responded and welcomed me into his embrace and nuzzled my head.

"it's alright, it was just a bad dream," he said retaining his calmness as he always did, I felt as if I needed to take a note from his book in this instance.

I nuzzled against Haytham's shoulder in his warm and comforting embrace trying with all of my might to let our feelings of being smitten sugar coat the pain that was brought a long in the twisted ways of my mind. Everything seems to be alright when i'm here in Haytham's arms.

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I have to apologise for losing the will to carry on with this chapter for while but recently I have met another man in my life and I had fallen in love with him and just as things looked the brightest for me being as I had never been in love before he decided that he would be happier with his ex and dumped me like a bad habit so I have been broken hearted and crying for about a week and I decided to stop being such a waste of skin and at least finish this chapter for you guys.

I'm sorry that this chapter is shorter than my usual but honestly I'm not really in the mood to write anything more detailed than this. As I said I am recently broken hearted so I'm lucky that I have managed to get through this. I will try harder next time.

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